Minister Bassil hopes that oil investment will not be sabotaged

Energy Minister Gebran Bassil said on Thursday that the tenders program was set up by the Energy Ministry according to the law, noting that during the first month of next year, world companies will be able to present their bids and consequently extract oil, while tenders would be carried out effectively in May, 2013   

Following the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform bloc, Bassil stressed that this step placed Lebanon on the global oil map. He added that the government has launched the tenders bidding program, but the hardest part is to commit to the results and the benefits such a program would yield.             

On the other hand, Bassil said that whoever criticized the aforementioned tenders "has no idea what the oil sector is all about", stressing that the allocations are far less than the international standards adopted in this sector.                 

He also revealed that some committees allocated for their members a larger budget than what has been allocated to the oil committee, including the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), the Banking Control Commision of Lebanon (BCCL), MEA, Casino du Liban and Banque du Liban, stressing that the Petroleum Administration Committee is a productive body, and would make money by its own, not by withdrawing any sum from the state treasury.