Rental of two Turkish electricity-generating ships approved

Prime Minister Najib Mikati headed the periodical meeting of the ministerial committee charged with studying the offers of companies from which Lebanon will rent electricity-generating ships at 1 pm Thursday at the Grand Serail. The meeting was held in the presence of Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi, Energy Minister Gibran Bassil, Environment Minister Nazem Khoury and a number of consultants and technicians.        

Following the meeting, Bassil said that the ministerial committee charged with following up on the negotiations with U.S. shipping company “Weller marine” and Turkish company “Karadeniz”, ended its negotiations successfully. In fact, following a 9% decrease in prices, the committee agreed with “Karadeniz” on renting two 270MW ships. The company will seek to provide the first ship during summer 2012.         

Bassil said that the technical committee that encompasses representatives of the prime minister, finance minister, energy minister and environment minister as well as several consultants was assigned with preparing contracts including financial, technical and environmental conditions. The contracts will be later submitted to the next cabinet session during which a final decision will be taken.