Lebanon’s Energy Ministry in January re-launched the country’s eagerly-awaited maiden offshore bid round after four years of delays. On 26 April it released a list of 13 companies that have qualified as operators and 38 companies that have qualified as non-operators (see table).

But interest is less buoyant than this would suggest: of the 51 qualifiers, some 46 are rollovers from 2013 when the bidding process first kicked off only to be aborted. (CONTINUED - 1412 WORDS)