The outgoing Minister of Energy, Walid Fayad, announced on Friday that “electricity will be supplied around 12 hours per day from next March, noting that the current supply varies between 9 and 10 hours per day”.
In an interview with the LBCI television channel, he indicated that “the sector is well on its way” to recovery, noting that the high cost of fuel is leading to increased billing.
He assured that the increase in supply is linked to the ability to secure additional fuel, estimating that “Électrcité du Liban (EDL) has not received enough support for this, especially since the public electricity supplier has between $500 and $600 million in collected bills.”
Concerning the gas issue in Lebanon, Mr. Fayad assured that it “is politicized”. “We can see a convergence between the geopolitical situation and TotalEnergies’ approach to completing gas exploration work in Lebanon,” he added.
Mr. Fayad explained that at the end of the exploration period, the war began, which forced Total to stop drilling in Lebanon. However, he ruled that “there was negligence on the part of this company regarding its contractual obligations”.
-He revealed that TotalEnegies “requires a guarantee bond for Block 4, and its executive management does not say whether it will provide the report requested by the Lebanese state regarding the drilling.” A request to the Council of Ministers was therefore sent to cancel either the agreement with TotalEnergies or the oil law, that is to say, to prevent this company from practicing. He added: “If we want to increase the ability of companies to explore, we need to prioritize those that are specialized and smaller in size.”
He finally stressed that “the oil and gas issue will not move forward unless conditions satisfactory for foreign countries are met”.
Swiss
