Noble Energy Willing to Assist Lebanon with Own Gas Finds

The story of the gas find off the coast of Israel (or possibly Lebanon) will not go away. Here’s a map I was able to find of the gas fields in question (from Green Prophet):

Green Prophet: Natural Gas Map off Israeli Coast

Israeli billionaire, Yitzhak Tshuva, who controls Noble Energy Inc. (the company that found the gas) has publicly voiced his willingness to help Lebanon with ‘our’ gas:

Lebanon can benefit from the discovery of off-shore gas fields in its territorial waters, billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva told some 4,000 haredi businessmen in Jerusalem last Thursday during a conference sponsored by the Hamodia daily.

[...]

“There is no argument over the fact that the finds are in Israeli territory, but seismographic data indicate there is a large amount of gas in Lebanese territory as well,” Tshuva said.

[...]

“If there is gas within Lebanon’s territory, we will be willing to share with them (Lebanese authorities) all the information we have regarding the search for natural gas in exchange for real peace,” Tshuva told the conference.

Yeah, well I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

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Barley Living Paycheck-to-Paycheck

Most Lebanese live paycheck to paycheck and our government isn’t far behind. Take a look at electricity supplies during the winter. How many times do we hear the same story: “ship carrying fuel cannot dock due to sea conditions, therefore we need to further ration the power supply”. And let’s not forget the recent embarrassment at Rafik Hariri International Airport where we asked airlines to bring their own fuel because our ‘paycheck’ was not correct. Well, apparently there is another shipment of resources that will also be arriving late, though I think this might only affect Almaza this time around:

A Maltese-flagged freighter carrying barley is reported to have run aground in Greece. The Palmali Discovery, which has 13 crew, is said to have grounded on a rocky islet off the island of Lesvos, en route to Beirut from Russia.

Barley: Shipment of barley bound for Beirut runs aground

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New Airline, New Airports, More Tourists, Oh My!

Tourism Minister Fadi Aboud was all smiles at this year’s Arabian Travel Market taking place at the Dubai Convention Center and he had quite a lot to say:

“Prove Israel wrong by visiting Lebanon. They have been trying to give the impression of another war. I can assure you, there is no possibility of a war in Lebanon,”
[...]
“We are among the few countries that were not affected by the global financial crisis. This year, we expect a strong growth in international arrivals,”

Good to hear. And what about opening airline competition in the country?

The Lebanese government is expected to open its skies to competition in 2012, until which its flag carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) will enjoy a monopoly, he said.
“We have an agreement to protect the national airline MEA till 2012. We want it to become more profitable before we open up the sky for private airlines,” Aboud said.

Any chance of adding a few more airports?

… the government is planning to open two military airfields for civil aviation that will help charter airlines and new private airlines to operate.
“These will be also ideal for budget airlines,” he said.

I hear you are also going to make it easier to get a Visa to Lebanon?

… Lebanon is trying to liberalise the visa policy to allow more tourist flow across the Arab world.
“During the Ottoman period, people moved freely without visa formalities. Now we have to pay $200 for a single entry — this is outrageous and should be reduced to allow free movement of people across the region,” he said.

As long as its based on reciprocal treatment then that should be fine. How close are we to having another airline out of Beirut? Well, Dubai-based businessman, Georges Mousa, has got his pilot’s hat on:

“The plan for the airline is ready. However, we will have to wait for the Lebanese Government to open up the skies for competition,” Mousa, who owns Dubai-based Planet Group, told Gulf News. The name of the airline is yet to be decided.

Fadi Aboud -Lebanon's Tourism Minister Talks Tourism

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AUB’s Disappearing Act with Stimulus Money

The US Government is on the offensive. Its launched a name-and-shame campaign against organizations who took stimulus money from the government but didn’t play by the rules. One of the organizations recently shamed: the American University of Beirut:

The board in charge of overseeing the economic-stimulus package today is naming and shaming recipients of stimulus dollars who it says have failed to file quarterly reports explaining what they’ve done with the money. That’s one of the requirements of getting it, but, the board said, some 4,359 recipients didn’t submit their first reports, covering the third quarter of 2009. In the final quarter of the year, the board said, it didn’t hear from 1,036 recipients who received $583 million in stimulus money.

AUB is among those that have not filed in their paperwork. Remind me again, what is the penalty if a student doesn’t file his/her paperwork on time?

AUB's College Hall: A plaque near the entrance of the building thanks US taxpayers for their donations. Maybe they need to add one for the stimulus money they received.

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Tourism Up, Everything Else Down

Two articles that I would like to highlight, the first from The Faster Times:

A lot of bright news for the Lebanese economy recently, starting with a banner tourist season, and culminating in the recent word that the IMF projects a GDP growth rate of 7 percent by the end of the year. But, as always with rosy macroeconomic data, there’s a dark and more treacherous underside.[...]

• Lebanon’s line of poverty at the moment is $4 per day, an impressively low number.
• By that measure, 28% of the population is living in poverty. If, as predicted by the Paris III study, the Lebanese government elects to raise the VAT from 10% to 15%, in order to help pay down the country’s massive debt [...] that figure may rise to 47%.
• Meanwhile, inflation in Lebanon over the past year has hit basic living costs the hardest. Food products went up 16%; dairy went up even more: 25%.

Of course, the poorest sector, agriculture, is immune to the booming effects of tourism. As Antoine Hoyak of Lebanon’s farmer union points out about village life, “the only way to make money is agriculture. There is some tourism, some shops, but no industry.”

Which takes me to article number two from the Daily Star:

Uniceramic, Leba­non’s largest ceramics factory, declared its bankruptcy on September 17 after having incurred $10.18 million in losses and failing to find a way of funding its liquidity shortage, according to media reports.

I guess industry is not doing so well either. So, is our salvation limited to Gulf Arab tourists and expat Lebanese longing for a good time? At the moment, the answer seems to be yes.

Update – September 26, 2009: The Daily Star- High cost of production sees closure of Lebanese factories

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