On Thursday [April 18], Lebanon released the names of the energy companies qualified to operate in 10 maritime exploration blocks. The remarkable part about this piece of news, announced by Energy and Water Resources Minister Gebran Bassil during a media conference at the Petroleum Administration’s headquarters in central Beirut, was the sheer number, size and diverse nationalities of the companies that expressed interest in exploiting Lebanon’s territorial waters as compared with the very small number of companies that did so in Israel and Cyprus, where exploration began years ago.