Iran will begin explorations at an offshore oil and gas field controlled by both Lebanon and Israel, Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi declared yesterday. He said that Iran would conduct a 3D seismic survey to map possible oil and natural gas-bearing structures.
Roknabadi spoke in response to an Iranian government statement that it would launch oil and gas exploration activity in Lebanon. On October 3, Iran's Minister of Petroleum Masoud Mirkazemi said that Iran had signed agreements with Lebanon to develop its oil and gas fields, and to develop a local refining industry.
The Iranian Labor News Agency quoted Roknabadi as saying, "Lebanon has [an] oil field shared with Israel. Three-quarters of this field belongs to Lebanon and a quarter of the field belongs to the occupying regime [Israel]," He added, "This country is about to exploit oil soon, but the Lebanese have not done anything in the field yet."
Roknabadi said, "Even when we expressed readiness to help the Lebanese in this field, the parliament of [Israel] voiced objection and said that Iran should not do this. But Lebanese officials have much welcomed our participation in oil exploration in this country."
Lebanon has a delineation agreement with Cyprus. It hopes to start offshore gas and oil exploration in its waters by early 2012.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 2, 2010
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