Lebanon Asks UN to Monitor Israel's Offshore Drilling for Oil, Natural Gas
By Massoud A. Derhally 
Jan 5, 2011 
Bloomberg
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Lebanon’s foreign minister urged the United Nations to protect its territorial rights in the Mediterranean, where Israel plans to drill for oil and gas. 
Ali Shami asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to ensure that “Israel does not exploit Lebanon’s marine and oil wealth, which lies within its exclusive economic zone,” in a letter sent yesterday, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency. He said Lebanon has submitted maps to the UN to support its arguments over offshore boundaries. 
Discoveries of gas off Israel’s Mediterranean coast have sparked arguments between the neighbors, who are technically at war, over their respective rights to energy resources in the area. Israeli companies exploring with Houston-based Noble Energy Inc. say they have located fields that may contain 25 trillion cubic feet of gas. 
Lebanon’s parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, said in June that some of the gas deposits extend into Lebanese waters, prompting Israeli infrastructure minister Uzi Landau to say that the finds are entirely in Israeli waters and Israel is willing to use force to protect them. 
The Lebanese assembly in August approved a law to open offshore areas to oil and gas exploration for the first time. The government is seeking to overhaul a power industry which is draining state coffers, and curtail widespread blackouts that have been a problem for the country since a 15-year civil war ended in 1990.