While some locals have allegedly found small amounts of oil or gas in the Bekaa Valley while looking for an entirely different resource, namely water, there is no Lebanese version of Jed Clampett — the fictitious US hillbilly-turned-millionaire who accidentally struck oil while not so skillfully “shootin’ at some food.” That said, data from a new hydrocarbon exploration survey that focused on the northern half of Lebanon as well as the coast suggest that buried a bit deeper than an errant bullet could travel, Lebanon may have onshore oil and gas deposits. Nothing is certain before drilling begins and not all deposits are necessarily commercially recoverable reserves, but prospects in the portions of the Bekaa surveyed look good. The question moving forward will be when drilling will begin and under what legal framework will it happen.
Oil, oil everywhere