Over the last two months, Lebanon’s energy sector has been wracked by a fuel oil import scandal pitting – at least initially – the Lebanese government against Algerian state oil giant Sonatrach.
The case erupted in April when a Lebanese prosecutor issued 17 arrest warrants for officials and employees linked to a 255,000 barrel shipment of low quality, ‘tainted’ fuel oil that allegedly led to outages at two of the country’s main powerplants – 560MW Zouk and 259MW Jieh – further exacerbating the country’s chronic electricity shortages. Karadeniz, a Turkish ‘powership’ operator which uses the fuel, ran tests and referred the results to state power provider Electricité du Liban (EdL). (CONTINUED - 1137 WORDS)
