Berri slams cabinet slowness on Lebanon’s oil resources

In an interview published Friday in As-Safir newspaper, Speaker Nabih Berri slammed the government’s slowness in addressing Lebanon’s oil resources. He also voiced his surprise to the “extreme slowdown” in carrying out the mechanism to appoint the members of the regulatory committee for the petroleum sector. Berri also commented on Wednesday’s cabinet session, saying he was “satisfied [by] its productive path.” “[Wednesday’s] session may have been the first productive session in a long time On Wednesday, the cabinet agreed to rent power-generating ships for a period of two years renewable up to one year. Meanwhile, As-Safir newspaper reported on Friday that Berri contacted Energy Minister Gebran Bassil and Minister of State for Administrative Reform Mohammad Fneish and urged them to speed up the process for assigning the members of a regulatory committee for the petroleum sector. The Lebanese Parliament in August 2010 passed an oil exploration bill, which calls for the establishment of a treasury and a committee to oversee exploration and drilling off the coast of Lebanon.