Israeli plans to drill for gas in the Mediterranean sea have alarmed Lebanon, which says it also has major gas reserves but may lose out because it lags behind in exploration and the hostile neighbours have no sea border. Lebanon has said it would "use all means" to defend its rights if Israel was found to be drilling within its borders, after a US-Israeli consortium announced in June a potential find that could turn the Jewish state into a gas exporter.
The discovery of the Leviathan prospect, which may have deposits of 16 trillion cubic feet (tcf), has sent Lebanese politicians scrambling to approve an energy law. "In all cases Lebanon will not give up its rights, whether it is land, air or water rights and will use all means to defend these rights," said Lebanese lawmaker Ali Hassan Khalil, an aide to Shi'ite parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri.
Delineation of exclusive economic zone waters is a complicated process that often requires negotiation, an unlikely scenario in the case of Lebanon and Israel who fought a war four years ago. "I see it becoming a source of considerable tension until the location and the scale of the reservoirs are better understood," said Catherine Hunter, the Levantine energy analyst at IHS in London.
Drilling is set to begin in the fourth quarter of this year on Leviathan, but until then it is also impossible to identify whether a gas-bearing reservoir is present. In a June 2 statement Noble said the prospects of finding the resources at Leviathan had "a geological chance of success of 50 percent."
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