This came in response to statements by Lebanese Energy Minister Walid Fayyad regarding his country waiting for gas shipments from Egypt to arrive before the end of August, against the backdrop of its power plants exhausting their fuel supplies, which threatens to stop producing electricity until more supplies are secured.
The sources confirmed that there are three obstacles that prevent the arrival of any shipments of natural gas from Egypt to Lebanon. First, most Lebanese power stations do not operate on natural gas, but rather on liquid fuel derivatives. Second, the infrastructure there is not qualified to receive liquefied gas via tankers. Finally, there are the restrictions imposed by the United States of America on Syria, which make it difficult to exploit the Arab Gas Pipeline in this process.
Regarding the Lebanese minister’s statements about implementing an immediate fuel purchase deal from Egypt, the sources explained to Al Mal newspaper that Egyptian port facilities and storage units are being used to receive liquid fuel supplied by Arab entities, including gasoline, diesel, and others, and to store and re-supply it to other markets.
The sources added that the Lebanese side has begun actual procedures to receive shipments of liquid fuel (liquid petroleum derivatives) from one of the Arab countries via Egypt.
She stressed that Egypt is ready to cooperate and provide support to all sister countries, but without negatively affecting the local market, especially during the current peak season.
She pointed out that there is an actual agreement signed by Lebanon in mid-2022 with Egypt and Syria to transport and exchange gas from Egypt to Lebanon via Syrian territory, but it has not been activated due to Beirut not obtaining the necessary funding for implementation, in addition to the US sanctions imposed on Damascus “Caesar Act” which stopped the supply via the Arab pipeline.
The Electricité du Liban announced that the last remaining production group on the electricity grid had gone completely out of service, due to the gas outage, which led to a complete cessation of electricity supply throughout all Lebanese territories on Saturday evening, including basic facilities such as the airport, port, water pumps, sewage, and prisons, according to the institution’s statement.
Source: Money
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2024-08-19 16:23:31
