Political chaos hinders Lebanon’s oil And gas hopes

Political chaos hinders Lebanon’s oil And gas hopes

A month after TotalEnergies said it would finally start drilling offshore Lebanon in the third quarter of this year, political chaos (again) threatens to throw a wrench in the fractured country’s plans to boost its failing economy and energy supplies with a hoped-for oil and/or gas discovery in the prolific Levant Basin. Lebanon has a vacant presidency and it’s largely depending on external forces to resolve it before it completely collapses.

After 12 tries at electing a new president, the vacuum is set to implode, and the shifting dynamics across the Middle East (a Saudi/Iran detente, UAE normalization of relations with Israel, Iran’s stepped-up meddling in Syria, etc) always plays out by proxy in fragile Lebanon—a long-time venue of Sunni-Shi’ite tinderbox. That makes whatever happens next between Saudi Arabia and Iran of decisive importance to Beirut.

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