Fayyad says ministry hasn't received Turkish gas drilling offer

Caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayyad has said that his Ministry has not received “any official or unofficial offer from Turkey for drilling in the border (offshore) blocks.”

“Block 9 is tendered to the TotalEnergies company and when I was in Turkey no one raised the issue with me,” Fayyad told al-Mayadeen television.

A Lebanese official source had told Russia’s Sputnik news agency on Tuesday that Lebanon, which is yet to reach a sea border demarcation deal with Israel, had received a Turkish proposal for investment and drilling in the southern oil and gas blocks near Israel’s border.

“The Turkish proposal involves drilling and investment works in Block 9, which lies on the maritime border,” the source said.