President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, received this followingnoon at Baabda Palace, Energy Minister Walid Fayyad, and presented with him the results of his efforts to secure fuel for Electricité du Liban from Iraq and Iran, which would raise the hours of feeding and ease the burdens on citizens.
After the meeting, Minister Fayyad spoke to the journalists and said:
I met with His Excellency the President to put him in the atmosphere of the progress we are working for, especially in the electricity, oil and gas sector. His Excellency placed me in the positive atmosphere of the progress of the work taking place on the issue of border demarcation, and I understood from him that the positive conclusion is near. And President Aoun put the developments in the fuel files that we follow to raise the hours of electrical supply. In this context, there are developments in the Iraqi fuel file, and we will have a hypothetical working session tomorrow with the Iraqi side to work on the issue of specifications due to which the Iraqi fuel shipment was delayed in reaching Lebanon. I hope that this problem will be resolved following tomorrow’s meeting, so that we can get back to the remaining shipments of Iraqi fuel, which amount to 190,000 tons. We hope to arrive in the next two months. Then we will discuss with the Iraqis the issue of renewing the agreement to obtain fuel, and for this purpose we will visit Iraq, especially since President Mikati met his Iraqi counterpart recently in the United States, and they agreed on the necessity of a visit to Iraq to discuss the renewal of the agreement to obtain an additional million tons of fuel. To provide between 3 and 4 hours of electricity daily, for a year.
Minister Fayyad added: At the same time, the President was briefed on the positive results of the technical delegation’s visit to Iran, as Iran committed itself to providing a donation of fuel to Lebanon, which might, with Iraqi fuel, increase the feeding hours to reach 8 or 10 hours per day. We will now work with the Iranian side on the issue of specifications and securing the fuel we need at our stations.
I also had a phone call with the Algerian Minister of Oil, who expressed Algeria’s desire to support Lebanon in the issue of fuel, and invited me to visit Algeria to discuss this file, and this is what I will do in the second or third week of next month.
I also discussed with His Excellency the President the issue of electric tariffs, following the Ministry of Finance issued a decision confirming that it has no objection to increasing this tariff, which will lead to reducing the electricity bill for citizens, because the official tariff for Electricity of Lebanon remains much lower than that of generators.
Question: When do you expect Iranian oil to reach Lebanon?
He replied: Within days or weeks, because the Iranian side wants to extend a helping hand quickly in this area, and we are
Urgent need to secure better electricity supply to the citizens.
Question: What is the solution to the chaos of electric generators pricing?
MP Hariri: This issue must be addressed at the level of the Ministry of Interior, the Internal Security Forces, and the Consumer Protection Department in the Ministry of Economy. I am ready to meet with the Ministers of Interior and Economy to study ways to activate oversight on this issue.
Question: Are there any developments in the file of Egyptian gas and Jordanian electricity?
MP Hariri: In this file, the World Bank is insisting on deciding the issue of the new tariff for the Electricity of Lebanon bill as a precondition before financing this project, in addition to initiating the procedures for appointing the Electricity Regulatory Authority. In the last file, we made great strides, following we sought the assistance of the Association of Regulatory Bodies in the Mediterranean Basin countries, to help us formulate the organizational structure of the regulatory body in Lebanon, and the functional specifications of each department. And when we finish these two files, we will have fulfilled the two basic conditions of the World Bank, so we will then enter into the financing negotiations, which should have taken place last spring.
