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Officials at Total Energy did not hold, as some expected, any press conference to announce what was discovered during the process of drilling the first well in the Qana field in Block 9 in the southern offshore waters, and ending its work there without any positive result. The company’s policy, according to reliable information, is not to announce anything about its exploration results until after the well is completed and the preliminary analysis of the data collected from the well is completed. Total officials will not publish any information related to this well without obtaining permission from the company’s headquarters.
Follow-up political sources say that any comprehensive study of the first exploratory well in which Total began drilling since last August 24, until it announced the cessation of its work on October 12 of this year (that is, about 20 days before the end of its work, as was expected), will benefit the company. In the first class. Knowing that there is another importance in developing such a study, and submitting a copy of it to the Ministry of Energy as well as to the Oil Sector Administration Authority, to review the details related to the process. What has been achieved will help it in its future work if it decides to drill a second well in Block 9 or Block 4, for which it won a license, and it has only drilled one well in each so far.
Despite the negative result after Total reached a depth of 3,900 meters in drilling and found nothing but water, the sources indicated that the “consortium of companies” is still keen to drill in the Lebanese blocks, otherwise it would not have submitted an application to participate in the second licensing round, for which the extension period has expired. On October 2, especially in Blocks 8 and 10, without any other companies interested in investing in the remaining blocks. However, the possibility of completing drilling in Block 9, or in any other border blocks, has currently been suspended indefinitely, to determine how and when the Gaza war will end, which does not reassure oil companies that prefer to work in a safe and quiet area.
The same sources wondered: Why did Total not intend to drill in the reservoir adjacent to the Karish field in Block 9, since oil has been flowing from the other dump in abundance for years? That is, from Karish and from the other corresponding oil fields, which confirms that the Qana field also contains commercial quantities of gas and oil, but the timing was not appropriate for it to explode from a Lebanese field.
The sources pointed out that they had not been reassured since Total informed the Minister of Energy of the technical difficulties encountered during the drilling operations last September, demanding that the drilling license be updated in order to change the drilling site. Accordingly, the then Minister of Energy and Water, Walid Fayyad, issued Resolution No. 32, dated last September 12, and ruled to amend the coordinates of the location for drilling the exploratory well, “Qana 31/1, in the aforementioned area mentioned in the drilling license issued pursuant to Resolution No. 30, dated August 16, 2023.” Changing the drilling point in the potential reservoir because it collided with a rock raised some questions. How did this rock not appear in the geological survey, and how did Total not know what type it was, how thick it was, and whether it was possible to breach it with its equipment or not?! On what basis did she choose the site in which she dug?!
Today, after it was announced that there was no gas and the drilling process stopped before it was finished, the same sources became certain that the change of location was not technical. Rather, Total submitted to American and Israeli pressure to change the drilling location, so that it would not find gas in the Qana field and finish its work quickly. She packs her bags and leaves Lebanese waters. Noting that some experts confirmed at the time that this was normal and had occurred in the process of drilling other wells. The operating company often specifies two or three points that are complementary to the first point. However, it did not convince many parties, especially with the accumulation and acceleration of matters and the drilling only to a depth of 3,900 metres, after it was said that Total would reach a depth of 4,200 or 4,400 metres, before talking about the existence of commercial discoveries or not. The cessation of drilling coincided with the Gaza War, as well as the Israeli halting of its work in the Tamar field on the opposite side, raising additional questions.
While the oil fields in the region were drilled at a depth between 4,700 and 5,600 meters, and more than one well was drilled in each of them, revealing that they contain huge discoveries of gas and oil.
Hence, sources confirm that the file of oil and gas exploration in the Lebanese blocks has been closed today until further notice. It is related to, among other things, the most prominent of which are the Gaza War and its repercussions, the regional and international settlement on Middle East policy in the next stage, as well as the election of the President of the Republic and the formation of the new government.
2023-10-26 19:15:43
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