In April, Energy Minister Nada Boustani had announced the site in Block 4 where the first drilling would take place in Lebanon’s bid to discover offshore oil and gas resources in its territories.

The site sits just north of Beirut.

“A mobile offshore drilling unit will be mobilized to Block 4 and the exploration well(s) will be drilled vertically in [an] area ... where depths range from 1,450 meters to 1,760 meters,” Total’s report said.

The target gas reservoir’s drilling operations will be supported by a logistics base in Beirut Port. 

Block 4 will see the drilling of one exploration well, and possibly a second one. A potential appraisal well will also be drilled, “depending upon the results of the previous exploration wells,” the report said.

Block 9’s target gas reservoir, whose drilling is set to start December 2020, will have one exploration well drilled and potentially one appraisal well.

A consortium of Total, Italian Eni and Russian Novatek will handle the exploration of Lebanon’s potential offshore oil and gas reserves for blocks 4 and 9.

Last month, Cabinet approved the second licensing round for exploration, with the opening of blocks 1, 2, 5, 8 and 10 for tenders.

Blocks 1 and 2 are along Lebanon’s northern border with Syria, which is disputed by the two countries. Blocks 8 and 10 lie along Lebanon’s southern border, which is disputed by Israel. About 856 square kilometers of disputed maritime territory lie in Block 8, the largest disputed area.

Parts of Block 9 also run through what Israel claims is its Exclusive Economic Zone. However, Lebanon says the maritime map it submitted to the United Nations is in line with a set of armistice agreements signed in 1949 following the Arab-Israeli War.