TotalEnergies has signed an agreement with Lebanon to obtain an offshore exploration permit in the eastern Mediterranean next to a block where it has started exploration, the French oil and gas supermajor said on Friday.
TotalEnergies, as the operator and holder of 35% in the permit, and its partners Eni (35%) and QatarEnergy (30%) have signed the agreement with the Lebanese government to enter Block 8 exploration permit.
Block 8 is located west of Block 9, where TotalEnergies drilled for potential resources in 2023.
“Although the drilling of the Qana well on Block 9 did not give positive results, we remain committed to pursue our exploration activities in Lebanon,” TotalEnergies chairman and CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, said in a statement.
“We will now focus our efforts on Block 8, together with our partners Eni and QatarEnergy and in close cooperation with Lebanese authorities,” the executive added.
TotalEnergies and other major international oil and gas firms have shifted focus back to exploration after years of trying to develop clean energy solutions.
TotalEnergies “reloaded the exploration portfolio by acquiring exploration permits in the U.S. Gulf, in Malaysia, in Indonesia and Algeria” in the second quarter of 2025, Pouyanné said on the Q2 earnings call.
In addition, TotalEnergies is developing resources offshore Guyana’s neighbor Suriname and looks to progress a development offshore Namibia in southwestern Africa.
Lebanon, for its part, hopes its offshore zone could hold the next big Mediterranean oil and gas field, such as the Leviathan and Tamar fields offshore Israel, Aphrodite offshore Cyprus, or the Zohr gas field offshore Egypt.
At the end of last year, Lebanon and Cyprus signed a maritime demarcation deal, paving the way for energy cooperation between the two countries, including exploration of offshore gas fields in the Mediterranean.
Cyprus and Lebanon both share the Levant Basin Province, which extends across the waters of several countries, including Israel, Syria, Egypt, and Turkey. A 2010 USGS study estimated the basin holds about 1.7 billion barrels of oil and 122 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas. Lebanon in particular will be hoping that gas discoveries could help reverse the country’s economic crisis.
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