A neighborhood of Beirut experiencing an electricity shutoff. (L'Orient Today/João Sousa)
BEIRUT —Electricité du Liban’s last operating power plant in Zahrani, South Lebanon, has run out of fuel oil and will go out of service by Friday afternoon, the state electricity provider warned in a statement Thursday.
Here’s what we know:
• According to the EDL statement on Thursday, a planned fuel shipment for August from Iraq has not yet been delivered, causing the Zahrani plant to run out of diesel despite Lebanon and Iraq having renewed their fuel agreement 10 days ago.
• In its press release, EDL stated that it had not received any confirmation as to the arrival of a fuel shipment in September and that activity at the power plant could only resume once it receives its fuel oil supply.
• A source within the Ministry of Energy told L’Orient-Le Jour on Thursday that the next delivery of fuel under the pre-renewal agreement with Iraq is scheduled around Sept. 5.
• The quantities of fuel supplied to EDL are part of an agreement concluded between Lebanon and Iraq last August. This contract makes it possible to acquire fuel for a period of one year. The deal states that Iraq is committed to supplying Lebanon with 1 million tons of fuel, which cannot be used by the country’s power plants, but which are swapped each month with a third-party supplier selected after a call for tenders. The first delivery took place in September 2021.
CORRECTION: This article previously stated that the Zahrani power plant had run out of diesel. However, the plant runs on fuel oil, not diesel. The article has been updated to reflect this.