source debka:
its rejection of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s repeated offer to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for Russian state firms to develop those fields, finance a pipeline network to Europe and provide security for the project. Putin maintained that neither Iran nor Hizballah would venture to attack rigs and pipelines under Russian ownership and protection. This rationale worked effectively in October 2017, when Iraqi and Shiite militia forces seized the oil city of Kirkuk from the semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, while refraining thus far from laying hands on the oil fields supplying Turkey, because the Kurds had earlier handed them over to the Russian Rosneft energy giant.
Netanyahu spurned Putin’s proposition at the time for the sake of Israel’s close ties with Washington.
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https://www.debka.com/israel-lebanese-oil-dispute-part-us-russian-mid-east-energy-battle/
Background:
12 February 2018 – Lebanon said on Friday it had signed its first offshore oil and gas exploration and production agreements for two blocks, one of them disputed by neighboring Israel, Haaretz reports.
Lebanon’s energy minister said the dispute with Israel would not stop Lebanon from benefiting from potential undersea reserves in the contentious Block 9, while consortium operator Total said it would not drill the block’s first well near the disputed zone.
A consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek signed the agreements for the two blocks, which are among five that Lebanon put up for tender in the country’s much-delayed first licensing round.
Israel and Lebanon have exchanged threats and condemnations over the tender, amid rising tensions over territorial and marine boundaries between them.
https://en.trend.az/world/israel/2859760.html
2016 – Russia wants share in Israeli gas – Gazprom’s interest in Israeli gas reservoir Leviathan is a strategic issue for Russian President Vladimir Putin. http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-russia-wants-share-in-israeli-gas-1001119921
Putin Plays “Energy Chess” with Netanyahu
Were the two to strike a deal, the geopolitical implications could be enormous for Putin and Russia’s strategic role in the Middle East as well as for the future of the US influence in the region.
Israeli press reported the Netanyahu-Putin talks as being about “coordination between forces in skies above war-torn country, status of Golan Heights…”
According to Russian state media reports, however, in addition, Netanyahu and Putin discussed the potential role of Russia’s state-owned Gazprom, the world’s largest natural gas producer and marketer, as a possible stakeholder in Israel’s Leviathan natural gas field. Russian involvement in the stalled Israeli gas development would reduce financial risk for Israeli offshore gas operations and increase the gas fields’ security, as Russian allies like Hezbollah in Lebanon or Iran would not dare target Russian joint ventures. https://www.globalresearch.ca/putin-plays-energy-chess-with-netanyahu/5523581