Clear answers on Egyptian electricity elude Lebanese

[Raficoo]

SOURCE: The Daily Star - Business Articles - Clear answers on Egyptian electricity elude Lebanese

BEIRUT: The promised Egyptian electricity and natural gas to Lebanon will surely ease the chronic energy problems in Lebanon. But the questions that remain unanswered are when Lebanon will receive electricity and gas and at what cost.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Energy and Water Minister Alan Tabourian traveled to Egypt last week to explore the possibility of buying Egyptian electricity at favorable rates and speeding up the delivery of natural gas to the Beddawi power plant in the North.

Tabourian told The Daily Star on Thursday that Lebanon is still negotiating with Egypt on the delivery of electricity.

The minister refused to say when Lebanon would receive the promised electricity which is part of a regional power grid that covers Jordan and Syria.

"Egypt will supply 150 MW of electricity to Lebanon at least and this amount could go as high as 450 MW if Jordan and Syria decided that they do not need this power at a particular time," Tabourian said.

He added that the rates for the Egyptian electricity are also under negotiation.

Chafic abi Said, the former head of research at Electricite du Liban (EDL), said that if Lebanon received 270 MW of electricity, for example, then the situation would improve by 15 percent at least.

The aging power stations, which mostly run on fuel oil, have a maximum output of less than 1,600 MW, while Lebanon needs at least 2,300 MW to supply the entire country with 24 hours of electricity per day.

"I think electricity rationing will ease in the coming months because people will stop using air conditioning, which consumes lot of power," said the former EDL official.

But Said stressed that the most important thing is to speed up the construction and installation of the high-voltage lines that passes through Jordan and Syria.

"We must first know if all the installations have been completed before asking how much Lebanon will benefit from the additional power," he said.

He strongly favored the import of LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) from countries like Qatar.

"But first we must invest in the construction of terminals and other facilities that will receive the LNG from tankers and then ship them to the power plants," Said added.

He said that LNG would cut the energy bill by 30 percent a year at least.

Roudy Baroudi, an energy expert, told the Central News agency that Lebanon should start extracting oil and gas from its own soil and off the coast.

He added that all the seismic studies conducted in 1976, 1982 and 1993 have demonstrated the presence of quantities of hydrocarbon in the Lebanese regional water and this reserve should be viewed as "national wealth."

Baroudi, who is currently based in Qatar, said Lebanon could stop importing oil and gas from abroad in the future if the country starts extracting its own oil and gas.

"With a $110 barrel of oil, Lebanon can now generate an income of $5 billion a year if it extracted oil and over the next 20 years. This will also attract international firms to explore for oil and gas," he said.

Baroudi emphasized that politicians should stop intervening in the energy affairs.

"Now that we have a national unity government the first thing we should do is revive the constitutional institutions in order to pass laws and regulations that will pave the way for oil and gas explorations," Baroudi said.


o when o when will the blackouts end..


if Lebanon does find big Oil and gas, i just hope it doesn't lead to a war lol