Lebanon is pushing forward with its second offshore bid round having closed the oft-delayed first one last October. Contract awards are slated for end-2019, but unless the ongoing political standoff is resolved, more delays are likely.

The Lebanese Petroleum Administration (LPA) confirmed in late July that a second bid round would commence by end-2018.

According to a ‘tentative timeline’, offshore contracts will be signed 12 months after launching the tender. If the energy ministry can indeed meet this timeline, it would certainly be a break with precedent.

Lebanon’s first bid round fell victim to the country’s byzantine political scene wherein straightforward laws are held hostage – sometimes for years – to ‘grand bargains’ between the country’s political oligarchs.

The first bid was originally mooted in 2003 (MEES, 3 February 2003), finally kicked off in late 2012 (MEES, 4 January 2013) and, having fallen prey to a lengthy political crisis,...