Gas fields that were discovered in the eastern Mediterranean during the past years, made Lebanon aspire to become a new important player in the pipeline equation connecting the Eastern Mediterranean with Europe, but those hopes collide with the fact that no significant discoveries have been found so far, low LNG prices, and the complexities Large among the countries of the region.

Among the most prominent fields discovered in this region are the "Leviathan" field that was discovered in 2010, and the Egyptian "Zohr" gas field discovered in 2015. The Lebanese government has granted the right to explore for gas in its territorial waters to a coalition of European companies consisting of the French Total, the Italian Eni and Russian Novatec 2018, but the results so far have been below expectations.

In a report published by the American Oil Price website, author Victor Katona said that ExxonMobil had dampened hopes for progress in the eastern Mediterranean region by 2020, by delaying the discovery of two wells. Weeks later, the Total-Eni-Novatec union announced that the Byblos-1 ب well, the first well to be discovered in Lebanese waters, was found to contain no significant gas reserves.

In conjunction with excavation work in a number of fields, the Lebanese Ministry of Energy granted more licenses last year to explore its territorial waters, including some areas that were previously excavated without any result.

Low prices for liquefied gas exported to Europe currently hamper hopes for exploration (Reuters)

Excavations

According to the initial estimates of the Lebanese Ministry of Energy, the region contains about 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 660 million barrels of oil, but excavations have yet to reveal significant reserves.

The hopes that Lebanon holds for gas exploration operations may face many obstacles, including the decrease in the prices of liquefied gas exported to Europe at present, and the high costs of exploration in fields relatively far from the Lebanese coast.

While Lebanon's plans to discover gas in its regional waters stumble, Turkey stands out as the most enthusiastic and determined country to explore in the eastern Mediterranean, where Turkish ships are working to explore gas in the region and go ahead with the implementation of its plans.