QatarEnergy has signed an agreement with France's TotalEnergies and Italy's Eni to join them in the exploration for natural gas in Lebanon's Mediterranean waters.
The consortium of TotalEnergies and Eni has already completed the transfer of a 30 per cent stake to QatarEnergy in the exploration of blocks 4 and 9 off the coast of Lebanon, the French company said in a statement on Sunday.
Under the agreement, TotalEnergies and Eni will each retain a 35 per cent interest in the blocks.
“Along with our partners, we are committed to drilling as soon as possible in 2023 an exploration well in Block 9, and our teams are mobilised to conduct these operations,” Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and chief executive of TotalEnergies, said.
The move comes after an agreement between Lebanon and Israel last year to demarcate their maritime boundaries, ending a long-running dispute between the two countries which do not have diplomatic relations.
The US-mediated deal paved the way for both countries to conduct gas exploration in the Mediterranean while easing a potential source of tension.
“The recent delineation of Lebanon’s maritime border with Israel has created a new momentum for the exploration of its hydrocarbon potential,” Mr Pouyanné said.
Lebanon hopes that demarcating maritime borders will pave the way for gas exploration that will help to lift it out of its crippling economic crisis that has wiped out 97 per cent of its currency's value, eroded its foreign reserves and plunged the country into blackouts as power shortages surged.
In 2017, Lebanon approved licences for an international consortium including TotalEnergies, Eni and Russia’s Novatek to move forward with offshore oil and gas development for two of 10 blocks in the Mediterranean. Novatek withdrew in 2022 from the exploration efforts.
The consortium partners signed the agreement in Beirut on January 29, at a ceremony attended by Walid Fayad, Lebanon's Minister of Energy and Water; Saad Al Kaabi, Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs and president and chief executive of QatarEnergy; Claudio Descalzi, chief executive of Eni, and Mr Pouyanné.
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Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The Bio
Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly
Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity
