Fuel prices rise as BDL increases dollar rate for gas imports

BEIRUT — Fuel prices rose on Tuesday after Banque du Liban changed the terms of payment for imports, increasing the dollar exchange rate for imported gasoline. Now, importers will make 70 percent of each payment at the central bank’s Sayrafa exchange rate and the remaining 30 percent at the parallel market rate.

Here’s what we know:

    • Queues were seen forming on Monday night and Tuesday morning in front of gas stations in the South and the Bekaa, after importers rationed the quantities of fuel delivered.

    • According to the latest scale published by the Ministry of Energy, the price of 20-liter cans of 95- and 98-octane gasoline have increased by LL16,000 to LL568,000 and LL580,000, respectively.

    • The price of diesel increased by LL26,000 to LL663,000. Gas cylinders increased by LL 9,000 LL, with each cylinder selling for LL321,000.

    • Meanwhile, the fuel used by private generators dropped by $3 to $975 per kiloliter.

    • The spokesperson for the Gas Station Owners’ Syndicate, George Brax, told local media that BDL has fixed payments of imported fuel, with 70 percent of each payment made at the Sayrafa rate, which is currently LL26,200. The remaining 30 percent is settled at the parallel market rate. Previously, fuel imports were paid entirely at the Sayrafa rate.

    • Farid Zainoun, head of the Syndicate of Workers and Distributors of Gas in Lebanon told local media on Tuesday morning that the Ministry of Energy has “met the union's demands” by issuing a payment installation schedule that falls in line with the reality of the dollar exchange rate on the black market, and issued the schedule on the basis of the dollar LL32,000.

    • Zainoun had also stated that he believes that the matter addresses the “imbalance in pricing between the distributor and the packaging companies and bridges the gap in the instability of the exchange rate of the lira.”