HSE Mainstreaming

While LPA acts as a one stop shop for the offshore oil and gas sector, it coordinates and interacts with multiple governmental and non-governmental entities who has relevant mandates and roles in regulating aspects related to the sector. An integrated, participative and inclusive approach is adopted in the interactions with line ministries and other stakeholders including local communities, academia, NGOs …etc. Stakeholder involvement is promoted and capacity building is enabled in the offshore oil and gas sector for effective coordination and cooperation. 

Capacity Development
The LPA continuously undertakes a number of trainings and capacity building workshops on HSE matters for the LPA body as well as for relevant stakeholders, including:

• Oil spill drill: Public officers from the Ministry of Environment and Civil Defense as well as from the Lebanese Army and the Disaster Management Unit (DMU) along with LPA staff participated in an oil spill drill exercise held in Norway in 13-18 September 2015, within the OfD programme, for capacity building on the coordination and handling of oil spill response.
• HSE in O&G: Public officers from all relevant stakeholders as well as media along with LPA staff, participated in a training ‘Towards more sustainable oil and gas projects and development’ organized by SODEL project and held in Beirut on 13-16 October 2015 to raise awareness on HSE concerns and mainstream sustainable development.
• EIA Review: An training on the review of EIAs

Coordination and Cooperation
The LPA is building strong work relationships with relevant local stakeholders and competent authorities to mainstream the oil and gas activities and facilitate coordination and follow up in the oil and gas sector. Focal points and coordination committees have already been convened with the ministries of Environment; Defense; Interior and Municipalities; Public Works and Transport; Industry; Public Health; Agriculture; Foreign Affairs; Directorate General of Oil; Oil installations; and the Disaster Management Unit at the Council of Ministries.

SEA 2020: In the framework of the development of the SEA, a taskforce was established from relevant line ministries including the ministries of Environment, Agriculture, Public Works and Transport, Social Affairs, Economy and Trade, as well as the National Center for Marine Sciences for their kind collaboration throughout the development of this SEA.

NOSCP 2018: Within the framework of the development of the NOSCP, the stakeholders involved and consulted as well as those whose role in the NOSCP was identified included the full list of line ministries i.e. Ministry of Interior and Municipalities (Airport Security, General Security, Internal Security Forces, Civil defense, Governorates of Lebanon), Ministry of Justice, Lebanese Armed Forces (Navy, Air Force, JMOC), Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Ministry of Industry, Oil Installations, Directorate General of Oil, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Ministry of Finance, Customs, in addition to the CNRS, Disaster Risk Management Unit, Red Cross, EDL, Academia and Environmental NGOs.

Social Engagement and public participation 
Public Participation with the framework of the SEA 2020 study: a comprehensive stakeholder engagement process was undertaken including the establishment of a taskforce of line ministries, conducting bi-lateral and multilateral meetings with relevant stakeholders including the scientific community, civil society organizations, private sector and associations in addition to the initiation of transboundary consultation.

Additionally, a distinctive and state-of-the-art approach was undertaken where the study was posted online for public consultation over a period of 7 weeks and open public consultation sessions were undertaken in five main cities along the Lebanese coast (Tripoli, Byblos, Beirut, Saida and Naqoura) where an active engagement and constructive involvement from all interested parties and stakeholders was noted.