Moscow and Ankara move in on Lebanon's offshore energy potential

With his sharp instincts for chances in the field of energy, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was stirred into discreet action by Israeli entrepreneurs' discovery in the past year of a gas bonanza - three fields, dubbed Tamar, Dalit and Leviathan, off Israel's Mediterranean coast, debkafile's Moscow sources report. Their currently estimated reserves of 25 trillion cubic feet would more than cover Israel's energy needs and enable it to become a gas exporter, revolutionizing an economy which has developed despite a paucity of natural resources.
Neither did Putin miss Beirut's claim that Israel was "looting" Lebanese gas resources, or that Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri had encountered a polite rejection when travelled to Nicosia on Oct. 21 to ask Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias for help in mapping the borders of oil and gas fields in the Mediterranean.
Moscow accordingly went into action by inviting Hariri for a visit, which took place Nov. 16-17.
With his back to the wall in a life-and-death struggle to save his government from falling into the hands of Hizballah, the Lebanese prime minister was granted the rare honor of an elaborate welcome by both Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev. The Russian prime minister then pitched into his spiel: Moscow could help Lebanon place itself on the map of oil and gas fields and pipelines in the eastern Mediterranean. But to exploit its oil and gas wealth under the sea, Lebanon needed Russia as energy partner and provider of funds, equipment and skilled labor.

Russia would reciprocate with heavy investments in the Lebanese economy that would restore Beirut to its former prestige as financial capital of the Middle East and an assured supply of advanced weapons at token prices to secure those investments.
None of this prevented the Russian prime minister from sending a delegation to Tel Aviv last week to sound out Israel's gas new tycoons for opportunities. On offer were Russian investments in funds and equipment and a Russian-Israeli partnership in laying the gas pipeline which Israel and Greece are planning as part of their evolving strategic alliance
The Lebanese prime minister left Moscow with an understanding in his pocket on three points. As a mark of Russian goodwill, he was promised the gift of six MI 24 helicopters 31 T-72 tanks, 36 130 mm cannons complete with half a million shells and thirty thousand artillery shells – an unprecedented donation to a country outside Moscow's sphere of influence.
Their understanding extended to three key areas:
1. They would discuss big Russian firms building a number of gas-powered electricity plants in Lebanon, backed by Kremlin guarantees and financing – against a Lebanese guarantee to purchase their output over a 30-year period.
2.  The Russian-built Arab Gas Pipeline Project Phase II, designed to bring gas from Egypt and run through Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey, would grow a Lebanese branch. On Dec. 5, a Kremlin official said: “We want to study a possibility of gas shipment from Syria to Lebanon, for example, by using the Arab Gas Pipeline capacity.”
3.  Moscow offered to build three nuclear power plants in Turkey.
The second understanding was the real reason for Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Beirut Wednesday, Nov. 24 and his talks with Hariri. Erdogan now has a new interest in defusing the tensions in Lebanon and keeping Hariri in power.
debkafile's military sources say that, in addition to his abiding interest in energy, Vladimir Putin keeps his eye on the big Russian naval base going up in Tartous, Syria. As headquarters of the Russian Black Sea and Mediterranean fleets, this base will also guard Moscow's investments and holdings in gas and oil fields in the Mediterranean.