Energy minister says World Bank financing for energy plan is "progressing"

BEIRUT – World Bank financing for an energy project designed to increase Lebanon's ability to generate electricity is “progressing a lot and will reach its conclusion in the first months of the new year,” Energy Minister Walid Fayad told Prime Minister Najib Mikati during a meeting Wednesday.

Here’s what we know:

    • Under an agreement announced in September, Egypt will supply natural gas to Lebanon via a pipeline that passes through Jordan and Syria to help boost its electricity output.

    • Fayad and Mikati discussed the signing of an agreement with Jordan, hoping it would happen “before the end of the year,” as well as an agreement with Egypt, whose participation ensures the project will be consistent with the Caesar Act.

    • The Caesar Act is US law that penalizes with sanctions any government or any private entity that assists the Assad regime or contributes to the reconstruction of Syria.

    • US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea erased obstacles imposed by the Caesar Act on importing gas through Syria around the beginning of October.

    • The two men also discussed financing conditions set by the World Bank, “most of which are reform conditions related to the good administrative and financial continuity of Electricity of Lebanon, with the existence of a long-term plan for the sector, provided that it is implemented within the first months of the beginning of the year,” Fayad said.