Beirut, January 27 (BNA): The Energy Ministers of Lebanon, Jordan and Syria signed, today, Wednesday, an agreement regulating electricity supplies in the region, in a step aimed at alleviating the severe shortage of electricity in Lebanon.
The German news agency (dpa) reported that Lebanon will get electricity from Jordan, which in turn will be supplied by war-torn Syria despite US sanctions on Damascus.
According to energy expert Mark Ayoub, the deal will provide Lebanon with an additional two hours of electricity per day, although this is unlikely to be immediate.
“It will not be before April and May,” Ayoub told the German news agency dpa.
Lebanon has been suffering from a severe economic crisis for more than two years, exacerbating the already inadequate electricity supply in the country.
Many people in the country only have access to electricity for an hour or two a day, and due to high oil prices, the use of private generators is beyond most people’s means.
Jordan’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Saleh Kharabsheh, said in a statement last week, that under the agreement, Lebanon will get an additional 150 megawatts of electricity from midnight until 6 a.m., and an additional 250 megawatts during the rest of the day.
Gas supplies from Egypt are also being discussed.
Electricity and gas imports must pass through Syria, which is subject to international sanctions. However, the US government has made it clear that it will not raise any objections to energy imports through neighboring war-torn Lebanon.
The Syrian government considers the new agreement a possible step towards ending its regional and international isolation.
The agreement gets financing from the World Bank, which has also called for far-reaching reform of the Lebanese electricity sector. Analysts said the country’s energy supply has been neglected for years and suffers from endemic corruption.
MI