LOGI (Lebanon Oil and Gas Initiative) is an independent Lebanese NGO that’s working hard to advocate for transparency in Lebanon’s Oil & Gas Industry. I love their work and the follow-up and commitment they’ve shown and they’re just launched a kickass campaign asking decision makers to stop passing laws that will dictate from now what we plan to do with revenues from oil and gas without putting first a national strategy and with out doing any public consultations.

In other terms, they’re asking them not to f*ck up the oil & gas industry just like we did with all others so far and stop passing laws while knowing that no revenues will start flowing from oil & gas before 7 years at least. The draft laws in question are:
– The draft law for establishing the National Oil Company
– The draft law for establishing the Sovereign Wealth Fund
– The draft law for establishing the Directorate for Petroleum Assets
– And The draft law for Onshore oil and gas exploration.

So the main message is that the licensing awards went well but we cannot proceed without having a proper national strategy and with the current lack of transparency and accountability. We need anti-corruption laws for Lebanon’s Oil & Gas and some serious actions need to be undertaken by the ruling bodies to show good faith and regain people’s trust. We can always hope that they are working for our benefit, but we need re-assurances and actions, not just talks.