Lebanon strikes energy deal with Syria and Jordan
Lebanon has reached a deal with Syria and Jordan to supply it with electricity, amid a power crisis in the country.
Lebanese Energy Minister Walid Fayed said on Thursday that the World Bank would finance the programme, which had been approved by the US.
“The Americans have given the green light to the project,” he said.
Beirut has been searching for alternative power sources as an energy crisis has brought parts of the economy to its knees in recent months.
Earlier this month, the country faced a complete power cut as the two power stations supplying the national grid ran out of fuel.
Syria’s Electricity Minister Ghassan Al Zamel said his country’s network rehabilitation would be completed by the end of the year.
Engineers have been undertaking maintenance and repairing damage caused by over a decade of conflict in Syria.
“The electricity line is not ready. It needs until the end of the year to be ready and our work teams are working round the clock,” Mr Al Zamel said.
Speaking to The National last week, Mr Fayed said that the proposed deal would provide Lebanon with an additional six hours of power a day.
Beirut will pay Egypt for gas, which would eventually be brought to Lebanon through Syria and the Arab Gas Pipeline.
The deal avoids paying Syria directly, which would probably breach US sanctions.
“By virtue of the deal, the Syrians will have more gas flowing into Syria than gas coming to Lebanon in a way that is equivalent to the service rendered,” Mr Fayed said last week.
“That is one way to do it that’s been [deemed] appropriate [to not] trigger any implications for the sanctions.”
The deal comes just days after Washington’s top energy adviser, Amos Hochstein, met Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun in Beirut.
In September, the Iranbacked group Hezbollah announced the arrival of several tankers of Iranian fuel it had imported through Syria for distribution.
Lebanon’s fuel crisis is a symptom of wider structural issues, with the central bank unable to release the foreign currency required to pay for tankers of crude fuel which have traditionally kept the country’s power stations running.
In August, the government announced a de facto lifting of subsidies on fuel.