Overview
- Presidents Joseph Aoun and Nikos Christodoulides signed the agreement at Baabda on November 26, formally demarcating the countries’ sea boundary.
- The deal ends a nearly two-decade impasse that followed a 2007 preliminary mapping that stalled for years before Lebanon’s cabinet endorsed the terms this autumn.
- The accord enables planning for joint or adjacent offshore projects, though Lebanon has no commercially viable finds yet and still needs seismic surveys and licensing rounds.
- Cyprus, which has made multiple discoveries including a 2025 find, says some gas could reach European markets as soon as 2027, aligning with EU diversification goals.
- Lebanon’s maritime borders are now agreed with Israel under a 2022 U.S.-brokered deal, with Syria remaining the only neighbor without a finalized sea boundary.