Hot on the heels of Israel’s 13 December announcement of the award of six blocks in the country’s 2017 bid round, neighbor Lebanon announced just a day later that its cabinet has approved bids for two of its blocks.
Greek independent Energean is the big winner in the Israeli bidding. But ‘winner’ is a relative term: in reality Israel is the big loser. Just six bids were received for the 24 blocks on offer – all bids thus resulted in awards. Greek independent Energean took five blocks: 12, 21, 22, 23 and 31, whilst a consortium of Indian state firms ONGC Videsh, Bharat PetroResources, Indian Oil Corporation and Oil India took the other block, 32 (see map). (CONTINUED - 990 WORDS)
