[ad_1]
The Iraqi Oil Ministry said on Monday that an agreement had been reached with Lebanon to begin exporting fuel supplies to Beirut in 2021, based on international prices.
This announcement came after a meeting between Iraqi Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar and Lebanese Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar in Baghdad on Monday.
The ministry quoted Abdel-Jabbar as saying that the fuel quantities would be “limited and will be announced later” and would cover part of Lebanon’s fuel needs to generate electricity.
Ghajar said it was agreed to import black petroleum fuel from Iraq to meet the needs of Lebanon’s electric power plants.
The fuel shortage in Lebanon has worsened, especially diesel, which has caused an increase in the hours of power cuts in a large number of regions, as well as a flood of citizens to fill their cars with fuel for fear of a similar shortage of gasoline.
The fuel shortage crisis began in Lebanon since last September, given the great and growing shortage of the US dollar necessary to import petroleum derivatives, which private companies take for the benefit of distributors and gas stations, as the sector entered successive strikes.
On December 8, the Lebanese interim government agreed to maintain subsidies for bread and essential medicines, at a time when the country’s financial crisis is causing the country to increase poverty and inflation.
With foreign exchange reserves dwindling rapidly, Lebanon’s leaders have not taken any real steps toward implementing a plan to support imports or help the country’s most vulnerable.
The crisis has already plunged at least half the population into poverty.
The problems were compounded for Lebanon by an increase in cases of COVID-19, a massive explosion in the port of Beirut that killed 200 people in August and prompted the government to resign.
The volume of Iraqi crude oil exports last month reached 81 million barrels, with revenue of $ 3.4 billion.
