Bassil Meets Berri, Hopes their Talks Will Achieve Progress in Petroleum File
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil held talks on Tuesday with Speaker Nabih Berri on the petroleum file and the need for cabinet to convene in order to follow up on this issue.
He said: “We hope that this meeting will mark the beginning of progress that can be achieved over this issue.”
He also emphasized to the speaker the need to ratify decrees to pave the way for the country to start oil and gas exploration.
The minister had held talks on Monday with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati on the need to hold an extraordinary cabinet session to ratify the decrees.
Bassil added on Tuesday: “I sensed from Berri a keenness on the petroleum file and his support to approve the decrees as soon as possible in order to avoid any possible delay in the tenders.”
The two officials also discussed oil taxes, which he said will assure petroleum companies seeking to invest in Lebanon's offshore oil wealth.
The taxes will also bring in greater revenues for the Lebanese state, he explained.
This issue needs to be approved at parliament before the state signs any oil contracts, said Bassil.
He had warned last week that Israel's discovery of a new offshore gas field near Lebanese territorial waters means the Jewish state could siphon some of Lebanon's crude oil.
Israel's new field is about 4 kilometers from Lebanon's territorial waters.
Miqati vowed that his government would closely follow up the issue, including keeping its contacts with the United Nations to prevent Israel from infringing on Lebanon's oil resources.
Recent Israeli discoveries of oil and gas deposits in the Mediterranean Sea have raised tensions between Lebanon and Israel that are bickering over a zone that consists of about 854 square kilometers and suspected energy reserves there could generate billions of dollars.
Beirut argues that a maritime map it submitted to the U.N. is in line with an armistice accord drawn up in 1949, an agreement which is not contested by Israel.
10 July 2013, 02:03
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Bassil Meets Berri, Hopes their Talks Will Achieve Progress in Petroleum File .............
Again National decisions are made by individuals representing camps. Does it mean they made progress in how to split the wheel of cheese?
Citizens of Lebanon,. ditch the thieves and prop up the constitution.
Yes we need to oil extrated today, but we need transparency on how the proceeds and budgets are worked and where the profits will be invested (what happened to bulging national debt? I do not hear Aoun complain about it anymore even though it increased by 6 billions the last 2 years).
