Lebanon Hooked On Diesel Imports Amid Financial Crisis

1 Sep 2023 Issue: 66 / 35 By: Noam Raydan

Lebanon’s power sector is in a parlous state. Only two utility-scale power plants are currently operational and they were temporarily shut down earlier this month due to lack of payment. With Beirut struggling to pay for the plants’ fuel imports, those of diesel for private generators have jumped with Turkey emerging as a key source of supplies.

Lebanon’s financial meltdown and the state’s failure to enable anything approaching reliable electricity provision have triggered major shifts in the country’s oil products imports in recent years. New trends in gasoil and fuel oil imports for state-run coastal power plants and in ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) for private power generators across Lebanon are becoming increasingly embedded.

As Lebanon struggles to keep the lights on, the government has looked to Iraq to help supply it with essential petroleum products via a convoluted swap deal (MEES, 18 June 2021). Meanwhile Lebanon is operating in a global market buffeted by the fallout from Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with trade patterns still in flux (MEES, 1 September). (CONTINUED - 2599 WORDS)