The Lebanese government has announced the creation of the Lebanese Sovereign Fund for Oil and Gas, to manage the revenues generated by the exploitation of gas and oil resources through an independent public institution within one year. Of the returns generated by the Fund, 80% is expected to be allocated in a savings and an investments account (of which at least 75% of it should be invested abroad), and the remaining 20% will be devoted to development projects for the Lebanese society.
In October 2022, Lebanon and Israel reached an agreement demarcating their maritime borders after years of negotiations. In early 2023, Lebanon relaunched exploration process for Block 9 of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ): in January 2023, Qatar and Lebanon signed an agreement to join the consortium including TotalEnergies (35%), Eni (35%), and QatarEnergy (30%) that is developing blocks 4 and 9. Exploration is expected to start in September 2023 to determine if Lebanon can start extracting and producing natural gas from the block and officially become an oil producing country.
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