Electricité du Liban (EDL) announced on Monday that its primary power plants, Zahrani and Deir Ammar, face shutdowns due to a financial dispute obstructing the delivery of essential gas oil shipments, noting that these plants are solely reliant on monthly shipments supplied by the Ministry of Energy and Water under a swap agreement between Lebanon and Iraq.

According to a statement issued by EDL, the first part of the gas oil shipment for June 2024 arrived in Lebanese territorial waters on June 27, 2024, and is now anchored off the coast of the Deir Ammar plant. All necessary administrative and customs procedures have been completed, allowing for its unloading.

The second part of the shipment, the statement added, arrived on July 4 and is anchored off the Zahrani plant, pending laboratory test results from Bureau Veritas in Dubai.

However, both parts of the shipment are currently under financial hold placed by the supplier due to a financial dispute involving the Central Bank of Lebanon, the Lebanese government, and the Iraqi government. This financial hold has prevented the unloading of the first part of the shipment, and consequently, the second part cannot be unloaded either, even after the necessary technical, administrative, and customs procedures are completed.

“Given this situation, which is entirely beyond the control and responsibility of Electricité du Liban, the institution has taken precautionary measures by prioritizing the supply of electricity to essential facilities in Lebanon (airport, port, water pumps, sewage, prisons, Lebanese University, essential state facilities, etc.) due to the severe depletion of its gas oil reserves. Consequently, the Deir Ammar plant was forced out of service entirely on the night of Saturday, July 6, 2024, and one production unit at the Zahrani plant was forcibly shut down after peak hours on Sunday, July 7, 2024,” the statement said.

“This measure was taken to extend the operation of the remaining unit at the Zahrani plant for approximately four additional days. It is expected that this last unit will also go out of service on Thursday, July 11, 2024, due to the depletion of gas oil supplies.”

EDL has assured that it will restart the plants that were forcibly shut down as soon as the financial hold on the shipment, thereby restoring the electricity supply to its previous state.