French oil major TotalEnergies has launched a tender for an offshore drilling rig to be used next year to drill in Lebanon's Block 9 in the Mediterranean Sea.
Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, received Lebanon's, Minister of Energy and Water of Lebanon Walid Fayad at the TotalEnergies headquarters
During the meeting, TotalEnergies said Monday, Pouyanné and Fayad discussed the development of TotalEnergies' activities in Lebanon, and Patrick Pouyanné confirmed that the teams in charge of drilling operations on Block 9 were now mobilized.
To date, in addition to the Operations Manager, more than ten people are involved in the preparation of the well. By the end of March, the team mobilized in Beirut will reach more than 20 employees, TotalEnergies said.
"The call for tenders to secure the drilling rig has been launched and should lead to a selection of the rig in the first quarter of 2023. Pre-orders have also been placed with suppliers for equipment required for the well. In parallel, offshore resources are being mobilized to contribute to the environmental studies which will be finalized by the end of June 2023," TotalEnergies said.
"All those TotalEnergies teams are working in collaboration with LPA to prepare the well in order to achieve the objective of TotalEnergies and its partner ENI to complete the drilling as soon as possible in 2023," TotalEnergies said.