Lebanon says Israel can now tap its gas resources

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Reuters
Sat, 06 Jul 2013 12:50 CDT

? Reuters/ Cynthia Karam
Lebanon's Minister of Energy and Water Gebran Bassil smiles during an inteview with Reuters at his office in Beirut June 14, 2010.

Lebanon's energy minister said on Friday that Israel has the technical ability to draw from Lebanese underwater gas fields, and called for an urgent parliamentary session to define gas exploration plans and bloc parameters.

Lebanon, technically at war with Israel, has warned in the past that it would "use all means" to defend its resource rights if Israel was found to be drilling within its borders.

Gebran Bassil told reporters at a media conference that Israel had discovered an underwater gas field in the Mediterranean sea only 4 km (2.5 miles) away from the border.

"This means, theoretically, that Israel is now able to reach Lebanese gas and that is a very grave situation," he said.

Barak Seri, the spokesman for Israel's Energy Ministry declined to comment.

Israel has made two of the world's largest offshore finds in the past decade, said to contain more than 800 billion cubic metres of gas. Texas-based Noble Energy is leading several international energy firms retrieving the new finds.

"We do not want to say a crisis would happen, but ... Israel would be able to dig horizontally. By doing that, it could reach the proven wells in Lebanon," Bassil said.

Source: http://www.sott.net/article/263638-Lebanon-says-Israel-can-now-tap-its-gas-resources

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