Oil Exploration Attempts
Attempts during French Mandate of Lebanon
The oil exploration journey began in the first years of the French mandate when the French High Commissioner Henry de Jouvenel issued a decision authorizing the excavation, extraction and exploitation of oil and metal reserves.
Later, research and studies were carried out in search of oil resources. The most important of these was the exploration attempt initiated by French geologist Louis Dubertret appointed by the French Mining Authority and the National Museum of Natural History, which launched the geological scanning project. For 25 years, starting in 1930, Dubertret and his team worked to organize Lebanon’s geological map on a scale of 1/200,000. This study helped highlight certain aspects of the oil exploration processes and it transpired that the Lebanese territory, given the nature of its geological layers, was a favorable medium for oil and gas discovery.