Diab chairs EDL board meeting at Grand Serail

Prime Minister Hassan Diab has chaired in the afternoon at the Grand Serail, a meeting of EDL Board, attended by Minister of Energy and Water, Raymond Ghajar, EDL general director Kamal Hayek, and EDL Board members: Tarek Abdallah, Hussein Salloum, Samer Sleem, Karim Saba, Habib Srour and Chadi Kreidy, in the presence of PM Advisors, Khodor Taleb and Elias Assaf.

The meeting discussed challenges facing the electricity sector and ways to find relevant solutions.

Delegation of oil companies

Then, Premier Diab held a meeting with oil companies, attended by Minister of Energy and Water Raymond Ghajar, Director General of General Security Major General Abbas Ibrahim, and a delegation of oil companies representatives, which included: George Fayyad, Maroun Chammas, Oscar Yammine, Jean-Claude Khoury, Kaissar Rizkallah, and Badri Daher, in the presence of PM Advisors, Khodor Taleb and Hussein Kaafarani.

After the two meetings, Minister Ghajar said, "The two meetings with the Prime minister have focused on the electricity file and on fuel importing. A staged solution has been found for the electricity crisis. A ship arrived last week, and another one will arrive by the week’s end, with gasoil ships arriving next week, which will lead to an increase in electricity generation, thus leading to a significant improvement in power supply. The amount of diesel imports does not meet the local need. In fact, one part is allocated to generators, trade and industry, and the other part is stored.

Comparing the volume of import since the beginning of this year, with that of the past four years confirms that we stand within the normal range. As for diesel smuggling, it is very limited and the issue is being followed closely by the competent security authorities.

As for the restoration of electricity to administrative Beirut, which used to benefit from 20 to 22 hours power supply, it can only be achieved by the return of normal electricity generation, i.e. a return to the production of 1700-1800 MW through all power factories, and power supply is expected to be restored next week.”