(Credit: Port of Beirut)
BEIRUT – A ship loaded with 42,000 tons of diesel fuel that was damaged last Sunday "started to unload its cargo" Friday, according to Fadi Abou Chacra, spokesperson for fuel distributors in Lebanon. Diesel has been scarce on the local market since last week, fuel representatives told L’Orient Today.
Here’s what we know:
• “The unloading began after contacts were made to resolve the problem,” Abou Chacra told the National News Agency. Earlier in the day, the spokesman for gas station owners in Lebanon, Georges Brax, said there were "difficulties" in emptying the tank of the ship and called on the authorities to "find solutions.”
• On Sunday, Transport Minister Ali Hamieh explained, the ship, named Pyxis Epsillon, suffered a "marine accident" due to strong winds near the coast of Amchit, which had caused the stoppage of the unloading of its reservoirs. He then ordered that the ship be towed from Amchit to the port of Beirut, so that its cargo could be unloaded Monday morning, which did not happen.
• On Friday, Brax also hoped that "the heating oil crisis will be resolved after the Tripoli and Zahrani fuel facilities have resumed distributing this fuel on the local market,” He also said that these two facilities provide "nearly 30 percent of the market’s needs.”
• Employees and contractors at fuel facilities in Tripoli began an open strike in January to demand an improvement in their working conditions amid the economic crisis in Lebanon.