Israel said Tuesday it has reached a US-brokered agreement with Lebanon to settle their long-disputed maritime border, hailing a "historic agreement" that potentially unlocks significant offshore gas production possibilities for both countries.
Lebanon said the proposed final text was "satisfactory", while US President Joe Biden praised the "breakthrough" and urged all parties to stick to the deal.
Negotiations between the neighbouring countries, which are still technically at war, suffered repeated setbacks since their launch in 2020.
But they gained momentum in recent weeks with both sides eyeing revenue from potentially rich Mediterranean gas fields.
The US text has not been made public but, under terms leaked to the press, all of the Karish field would fall under Israeli control, while another potential gas field, Qana, would be divided but its exploitation would be under Lebanon's control.
As @POTUS states, this historic breakthrough, a decade in the making, has been pursued by US (and Israeli) administrations of all partisan affiliations.
— Debra Shushan 🌻 דבורה שושן 🌻 دبرا شوشان (@DrShushan) October 11, 2022
For more on the policy (and who's playing politics), see our J Street Policy Center issue brief: 👇https://t.co/2ZkMVq1r46 pic.twitter.com/MErgUUeC7g
French company TotalEnergies will be licensed to search for gas in the Qana field, and Israel would receive a share of future revenues.
Gas dialogue
News about the deal between Israel and Lebanon emerged on the eve of a meeting of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF) in Cyprus, set for 14 October.
The conference will centre on European Union efforts to become less dependent on Russian gas.
The daily Cyprus Mail quotes Cypriot Energy Minister Natasa Pilides as saying that the forum "will consider the role of eastern Mediterranean countries and the EU in promoting and strengthening the cooperation needed to achieve the ambitious goals of the green deal, but also for the energy independence of the EU from Russian natural gas.”
The EMGF was launched by Egypt in 2018 as a “policy dialogue on natural gas.” Other founding members were Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan and Palestine. France joined the club in 2020 during its third meeting in Cairo.
The forum, among other things, aims to lower infrastructure costs and secure competitive prices for gas from the region. Egypt, which started importing Israeli gas in early 2020 for possible re-export to Europe or Asia, is promoting itself as a key player in the regional trade.
According to a 2021 study by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) gas prices, which were "historically low" in 2020 combined with a supply glut in Europe made "eastern Mediterranean gas less commercially attractive than it once was."
The situation was aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic which slowed down investment. In April 2020, ExxonMobil postponed drilling in Cyprus until 2021, followed by Italian company Eni and French Total in May. The increased attention on developing renewables and hydrogen had started shifting the focus of energy companies in general.
But the Ukraine war changed everything.
Exploration vessel
The gasfields near Lebanon and Israel are not the only disputed areas in the East-Med. Paris took an active role in the region in August 2020, when Turkey (not an EMGF-member) sent an exploration vessel, the Oruc Reis, to carry out seismic surveys in another disputed part of the eastern Mediterranean.
Turkey and Greece, both NATO members, disagree sharply over rights to hydrocarbon resources in the eastern Mediterranean. Ankara and Athens can't see eye to eye over the extent of their continental shelves in waters dotted with islands, most of them Greek.
At the time, Athens called the survey “illegal” and French President Emmanuel Macron ordered the deployment of two Rafale fighter jets and two navy vessels to the eastern Mediterranean to provide support for Greek naval patrols.
