Qabbani Says Disputed Maritime Area within Lebanon’s EEZ
Head of the parliamentary energy committee MP Mohammed Qabbani stressed on Thursday that the disputed 854 square kilometers maritime zone belongs solely to Lebanon’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
The area, which Lebanon and Israel are bickering over, contains suspected energy reserves that could generate billions of dollars.
“The (854 square kilometer) zone exclusively belongs to the Lebanese state,” he told As Safir newspaper.
Qabbani noted that an expert cartographer (marine surveying) Tullio Scovazzi was briefed about the work carried by a Lebanese navy team that decided the point of convergence (the starting point of the maritime border) on 23.
Scovazzi agreed that the survey was accurate.
Qabbani also expressed astonishment over a report saying that Lebanon was able to restore 530 square kilometers of the disputed area with Israel.
The Israel Opportunity energy exploration partnership said that prospecting at the Pelagic group of deep-sea fields, west of Haifa, showed a potential 189 billion cubic meters (6.7 trillion cubic feet) of gas and 1.4 billion barrels of oil there.
In March 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated a mean of 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and a mean of 34.5 trillion cubic meters of recoverable gas in the Levant Basin in the eastern Mediterranean, which includes the territorial waters of Lebanon, Israel, Syria and Cyprus.
Lebanon has been slow to exploit its maritime resources compared with other eastern Mediterranean countries. Israel, Cyprus and Turkey are all much more advanced in drilling for oil and gas.
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/42657 |