Firms qualified to bid for offshore Lebanon blocks

Lebanon's Petroleum Administration has revealed the results of a pre-qualification process to select companies who will be able to bid in its first offshore exploration round. 

Of 54 companies applying to take part, 46 have been approved to bid in the round, bidding for which is expected to run May to November, with final awards in February.  

Of 16 firms applying to be operators, 12 were qualified to bid. These were Anadarko, Petrobras, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Eni, Maersk, Repsol, Shell, Statoil, Total, Inpex and Petronas.

Of the 38 companies applying as non-operators, 34 were approved. These were: Suncor Energy Inc, Geopark Holdings, Limited/Petroleb, Marathon Oil, Netehrlands One B.V., Santos, OMV, INA – Industrija Nafte, GDF Suez Exploration, MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas Company, Edison International Spa, Petroceltic International, Cairn Energy, Dana Petroleum, Genel Energy,  Heritage Oil, SOCO International, JAPEX – Japan Petroleum Exploration, JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corporation, Mitsui E&P Middle East B.V., Cairn India Limited India, ONGC Videsh Limited India, KNOC – Korean National Oil Corporation, Korea Gas Corporation Korea, Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company, CC Energy Limited Lebanon, Lukoil Overseas Lebanon B.V., OAO Novatek / GBP Global Resources B.V., Roseneft Oil Company, PTT Exploration and Production (LXV) N.V., TPAO – Turkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortakligi, Crescent Petroleum Company International, Crescent Petroleum Company International Limited /Apex Gas Ltd, Dana Gas PJSC, Dragon Oil Holdings and Mubadala Petroleum.