Lebanon President says he hopes TotalEnergies will resume oil and fuel exploration quickly

CAIRO (Reuters) – Lebanon President Joseph Aoun on Tuesday advised Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani that he hopes TotalEnergies will quickly resume oil and fuel exploration off the coast of Lebanon, based on an announcement from the president’s workplace.

In 2023 state-owned QatarEnergy joined France’s TotalEnergies and Italy’s Eni (ENI.MI) in a three-way consortium to search for oil and fuel in two maritime blocks off the coast of Lebanon.

No hydrocarbon finds had been made after exploratory offshore drilling in 2023, two sources with direct information of the matter advised Reuters on the time.

TotalEnergies didn’t reply instantly to a request for remark.

Drilling plans in Lebanon, which had hoped fuel and oil discoveries would assist it to reverse its crippling financial disaster, had been derailed till a ceasefire deal ended battle between Israel and militant Lebanese group Hezbollah in the direction of the top of final yr.

Reconstruction plans that would come with oil and fuel exploration are awaiting formation of a brand new Lebanese authorities after the election of Western-backed president Aoun in January ended a two-year presidential vacuum.

(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din and Nayera Abdallah; Enhancing by David Goodman)