1. Introduction
Recent seismic surveys offshore Lebanon, the discovery of offshore gas in Haifa (eg at Dalit, Tamar and Leviathan), and the Cypriot and the Syrian launchings of oil exploration bids in 2007, have significantly raised awareness and provided strong evidence for the availability of gas assets offshore Lebanon.
Accordingly, the Lebanese government has shown a big interest in this subject since 2000, and has employed internationaloil and survey companies to carry out 2-D and 3-D seismic surveys. The Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) company affirmed that the data acquired is comprehensive and that there is sufficient evidence to allow the companies to drill.
Lebanon’s offshore hydrocarbon potentials have led to a new petroleum policy and a law has recently been passed by the Lebanese government. However, there exists a persistent lack of managerial and regulatory studies allowing the implementation of this law and policy. This translates as a strong need for further scientific research in support of policy- and law-makers entrusted with the management and exploitation of Lebanon’s hydrocarbon resources.
The overarching goal of this article is to present a systematic approach to assist in structuring hydrocarbon contracts in Lebanon. It is concerned with the terms and conditions of production sharing contracts (PSCs) offered by governments, in particular the Lebanese government, to contractors (eg international oil companies—IOCs) for the extraction of their natural resources. This is achieved in the article through the following four tasks.
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