Baghdad / NINA / – Lebanon and Egypt signed, today, Tuesday, an agreement to transport 650 million cubic meters of gas annually from Egypt to Lebanon via Syria.
Under the agreement, which was signed at a ceremony held at the Lebanese Ministry of Energy in Beirut, “the gas will be pumped through a pipeline to the Deir Ammar power station in northern Lebanon, where it can add about 450 megawatts to the grid, equivalent to about 4 additional hours of electricity per day.”
The state-run Lebanese Electricity Company produces the equivalent of just several hours of energy per day, forcing many to pay expensive subscriptions to private generators.
The agreement is part of a US-backed effort to address power outages in Lebanon by transferring electricity from Jordan and natural gas from Egypt through Syria.
Lebanon is counting on Egyptian gas, along with a separate deal to import electricity from Jordan, which will raise the country’s electricity supply to cover a period of up to 10 hours a day from only two hours currently.
The two deals represent a cornerstone in the Lebanese government’s plan to reform the electricity sector, by increasing energy supplies and then raising prices, in an attempt to bridge the deficit of the state-run electricity company amid a severe economic crisis.
The World Bank pledged to finance the two deals on condition of reforms in the Lebanese electricity sector, which has contributed tens of billions of dollars to the country’s huge public debt.
The Lebanese Cabinet approved a plan to reform the electricity sector in March, but it has not yet implemented the main components of the plan.
The plans, which together will add up to 700 megawatts to the Lebanese electricity grid, were first introduced in the summer of 2021 but have faced several delays./End
Source: National Iraqi News Agency