Why Lebanon is keeping mum on Syria’s contentious oil exploration contracts

  • Date: 12-Apr-2021
  • Source: Arab News
  • Sector:Oil & Gas
  • Country:Lebanon
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Why Lebanon is keeping mum on Syria’s contentious oil exploration contracts

MISSOURI, USA/ BEIRUT: Syria has signed a four-year oil and gas exploration deal with a Russian company in Mediterranean waters that Lebanon claims as its own. The two blocks to be explored under the new contract overlap with Lebanese maritime areas for energy exploration along the country's northern border. Yet Lebanese outrage has been conspicuous by its absence. Now imagine a time, not so long ago, when the shoe was on the other foot. Lebanon demarcated its maritime borders in 2011 and, three years later, offered tenders for oil and gas companies for Block No. 1 in the north. Justifiably or not, Syria responded by not recognizing the Lebanese demarcation and lodging a protest. The striking contrast between the two reactions, separated by seven years, was not lost on the Lebanese opposition. "Where do the official Lebanese authorities stand on this issue?" asked Rola Tabsh, an MP from the Future Movement bloc, when Syria announced the contract last month. "What is this suspicious coma? We waited for the violation from the south, from the enemy (Israel), but it came from the north, from a brotherly country." Similar concern was voiced by Richard Kouyoumjian, former minister and serving member of the