Oil tanker docked in Lebanon awaits payment approval

A tanker loaded with 66,000 tons of gas and oil docked in Lebanese waters for the benefit of the Electricite Du Liban (EDL). Its cargo still needs to be unloaded at the Deir Ammar plant, awaiting the opening of the credit, which is worth 62 million dollars.

The opening of the credit by the Banque du Liban (BDL) still needs to be made available. Firstly, Banque du Liban still needs to provide a written document discussing the amount of money it will transfer to EDL. Is it 300 million dollars, more or less? 

The delay in opening the credit is subject to a daily fine of $30,000 for the state's delay in unloading the ship's cargo.

Secondly, Banque du Liban is still waiting for the formula according to which it will pay and recover these funds. On this basis, a letter of guarantee could be issued for the waiting ship's cargo to be unloaded, after which the electricity supply hours will be raised to about 5 hours in exchange for the new tariff.

To reach a formula that would allow the issuance of a letter of guarantee, correspondence and contacts took place between Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the Ministries of Finance and Energy. 

An initial suggestion was that the IMF's SDRs can fund this shipments. Still, the matter fell through. The discussion came back about a treasury advance or a financial contribution. When the Minister of Energy wrote that he was requesting a treasury advance based on the proposal of the Ministry of Finance, the response came from Mikati that the request for the advance must be based on the request of the Ministry of Energy.