In what appears to be an attempt to pressure caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati, caretaker Energy Minister Gebran Bassil on Friday warned that Israel could be stealing offshore oil and gas resources from Lebanese waters. He called for the caretaker government to immediately act on passing the decrees needed for Lebanon to begin its own exploration and potential development. Bassil pointed to a 'new' Israeli discovery that he said was four kilometers from the countries’ disputed maritime border. Exploratory drilling in Israel’s Alon C block – conducted in late May – revealed that, indeed, there is natural gas in what is known as the Karish reserve.

According to a map from Israel’s Delek Energy, the reserve is around 20 kilometers south of the border Lebanon claims.  Bassil warned of a technique called horizontal drilling, where oil and gas companies drill a well beneath a rig and then turn their drilling equipment once under the sea to get extra quantities of oil and/or gas. Technical descriptions of horizontal drilling refer to it as a way to get extra resources out of individual reserves or pools of oil and/or gas. [Link]