Walid Fayad talking on March 20 with his Qatari counterpart, Saad Charida al-Kaabi in Doha. (Credit: DR)
BEIRUT — Energy Minister Walid Fayad met on Sunday with his Qatari counterpart, Saad Sharida al-Kaabi, in a meeting held on the sidelines of the seventh conference of the Arab Electricity Union, which opened over the weekend in Doha.
Here’s what we know:
• According to a statement from the ministry, the two officials discussed the needs of a Lebanon in crisis, whose state power supplier, Electricité du Liban, manages to produce only two to three hours of power per day.
• They also discussed ways in which Qatar, a major gas producer, could provide part of Lebanon’s needs. While no firm decision was announced, Kaabi called on the Lebanese side to prepare tenders that are adapted to the new market conditions, marked by a significant increase in prices, an increase in demand from Asian countries, as well as that of Europe, which is looking for alternatives to Russian gas in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month.
• Two of the most important power plants operated by EDL consume gas, but only the one in Deir Ammar (North Lebanon) is connected to a regional pipeline. To supply the one in Zahrani (South Lebanon), Lebanon must also build a floating storage and re-gasification unit, an essential piece of infrastructure for transporting this type of hydrocarbon. EDL currently receives only a few tens of thousands of tons of fuel oil each month under an agreement concluded last summer with Iraq under a complex swap system developed last year.
• During a meeting on the sidelines of President Michel Aoun’s official visit to Qatar last November, Fayad and Kaabi had already discussed the options for aid in the energy field, which would take the form of gas deliveries for EDL’s power plants.