Lebanon Electricity Rationing: Justifications and Solutions for Decrease in Feeding Hours

“Lebanon Debate”

The Lebanese have been complaining for about a month about the decrease in feeding hours from Lebanon Electricity, and some areas have even been completely deprived of electricity due to a harsh rationing policy adopted by the company.
What are the justifications for the delay in unloading the cargo of fuel oil ships, and when will feeding return to normal?

In an interview with Lebanon Debate, Energy Minister Walid Fayyad mentioned the reasons for the electricity problem, and “the first reason is the issue of the Public Procurement Authority, which had previously opposed the tender. The Ministry then explained that the tender was not tainted by impurities, and therefore it must be carried out, and this is what happened, and it did not object.” The authority again during the temporary freeze period, but expressed its opinion after this period as if to suggest that it did not want to formally object.”

He explains: “As for the second reason for the delay, it came from the Bank of Lebanon, which was opening a credit amounting to 656 million dollars, while the Iraqi side’s request was to evaluate the amount at 700 million dollars, especially since the price of oil is changing globally, and the bank was late in opening the credit for a period of 14 days, and this delay was reflected in a delay.” The ship that arrived in Iraq to load fuel was unable to load until December 20.”

He points out that “had it not been for this delay, the ship would have arrived early and today we would have electricity for about 5 hours a day.”

He added: “After the ship arrived, the necessary checks had to be conducted at Veritas Dubai. The checkup was completed, the ship unloaded its cargo, and electricity was supposed to return within hours.”

He believes that “we are supposed to return to the previous feeding hours with a production of approximately 500 megawatts starting today or tomorrow at the latest.”

And about constantly repeating this matter and depriving the Lebanese of electricity? He explains, “The situation has been resolved until the end of this year, that is, the end of November. With the small quantity of 500 to 600 megawatts, this solution remains sustainable for this year.”

Fayyad says: “After we put the train on the track, that is, with the first agreement with Iraqi fuel, which secures 500 to 600 megawatts through the 125,000 tons per month of fuel oil, which are exchanged between 60,000 tons of gas oil, which produces this amount of megawatts, which only allows… They feed 4 to 5 hours a day.”

In order to increase nutrition further, Minister Fayyad refers to a “memorandum of understanding with Iraq to supply “cord oil” in addition to “fuel oil” with payment facilities for six months. What is new in the file is that after preparing the draft contract, the Iraqi side returned the draft for signature, which we will send to The Legislation and Consultation Authority to take the opinion and approval to submit it to the government before signing it and of course after the Electricité du Liban explains how to increase the supply of any fuel and for any energy, so that the amount of additional fuel is determined and the amount of corfuel in exchange for it that we import from Iraq is determined.”

He adds: “In order to succeed in this matter, Electricité du Liban must activate invoices in dollars and in Lebanese for those who wish, so that the company can collect partial collection in dollars and collect it in the Central Bank for Electricité du Liban to benefit from it in paying the price of fuel for the next six months.”

Fayyad called on the Bank of Lebanon to “first allow the Electricité du Liban, when dollars enter, to dispose of this money for fuel and maintenance, and secondly, to open in order to implement this contract a ‘letter of credit’ and here is the horse’s stall. Otherwise, we will not be able to implement the contract and thus increase the electrical supply.” .

2024-01-04 13:20:32
#suffering #month.. #minister #good #news #Lebanese