After deal with Israel, offshore rig arrives in Lebanese waters to drill for gas - THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

16 August 2023, 2:35 pm 5
By AP and TOI STAFF

An offshore drilling rig has arrived at its location in the Mediterranean Sea off Lebanon’s coast and will start operations in the coming weeks to search for gas, Lebanese cabinet ministers said Wednesday.

The rig is expected to begin drilling in September in Lebanese waters near the border with Israel after the two countries reached a deal last year on their maritime border. Lebanon and Israel have formally been at war since Israel’s creation in 1948.

Cash-strapped Lebanon hopes that future gas discoveries will help the small Middle East nation pull itself out of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history.

Minister of Transport Ali Hamie wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the rig arrived Wednesday morning at the location where it is scheduled to begin work. The rig faces the southern port city of Tyre.

Israel Grants Approval for Energean to Start production at Karish Offshore Gas Field - OFFSHORE ENGINEER

October 25, 2022

Maayan Lubell and Ari Rabinovitch 

Israel granted Energean permission to start production at the offshore Karish gas field on Tuesday, an Energy Ministry statement said.

Energean has said its floating production storage and offloading vessel [the Energean Power - OE ] is due to start production at Karish in the third quarter but has not given a precise date.

On Oct. 9, the London-listed energy group began pumping gas to its floating production facility as part of reverse flow testing procedures.

Israel and Lebanon on Thursday are expected to sign a U.S.-brokered maritime border deal reached this month, opening the way for offshore energy exploration.

Israeli energy minister due in Cyprus to address Aphrodite field dispute - CYPRUS MAIL

September 17, 2022
Christodoulos Mavroudis

Israeli energy minister Karine Elharrar will be in Cyprus on Monday 19 to address the pending dispute with Nicosia over the Yishai gas field, according to his Cypriot counterpart Natasa Pilides.

Pilides told CNA on that Elharrar will be visiting Cyprus “in the context of our institutionalised discussion over Yishai.”

Israeli daily business newspaper Calcalist on Saturday, citing unnamed but reliable sources reported that Israel was looking into a new framework to address the pending dispute with Cyprus over the Aphrodite/Yishai gas fields.

Reportedly, Elharrar will propose to the Cypriot side to take over 10 per cent of the field which the Israeli side considers its own, against monetary compensation.

This comes six months after intergovernmental parleys aimed at resolving the longstanding dispute were announced to be taking place between the two countries.