Electricité du Liban headquarters in Beirut. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — State-supplied electricity briefly returned Monday night to several towns in the Nabatieh region after a month-long blackout, albeit only for about an hour, the state-run National News Agency reported.
The towns of al-Duwair, Harouf, Toul, Zebdine, al-Sharqiya, Ansar, Jabshit, al-Zawtrin al-Gharbiyye, al-Zawtrin al-Sharqiya, al-Shaqif and others received between 58 minutes and an hour and a half of the government-supplied power on Monday, according to the NNA.
The state news agency did not mention the reason for the restoration of some electricity. A representative from Électricité du Liban, Lebanon's state electricity provider, could not be reached to clarify the source of the briefly restored power.
Lebanon's thermal power plants went out of service on Sept. 15 due to a lack of fuel oil needed to run them and amid protests against EDL's workforce.
The quantities of fuel oil supplied to EDL are part of an agreement concluded between Lebanon and Iraq last August, but the last delivery was delayed. The deliveries from Iraq are meant to resume in the coming days, while the Ministry of Energy and Water is also expecting deliveries of Iranian fuel oil under an agreement currently being prepared with the Iranian authorities.
On Monday, caretaker minister of Energy Walid Fayad said the first batch of Iranian fuel could arrive in Lebanon "in the next few days or weeks." Alongside the expected Iraqi fuel, the Iranian shipment would help provide eight to 10 hours per day of electricity, Fayad added during a meeting with President Michel Aoun.
Lebanon signed a long-awaited deal in June with Egypt and Syria to import Egyptian gas via Syria, which would allow the country to increase its power supply by four hours a day. However, this deal has yet to be granted approval from the US or financing from the World Bank.