Lebanon plunges into total darkness as gas oil to power power plants runs out

On Saturday, Lebanon officially plunged into total darkness as it ran out of the gas oil needed to run its power plants.

State-owned electricity company Electricite du Liban (EDL) said the Zahrani power plant – the last power plant in operation – had run out of fuel, leaving the country without electricity.

Government facilities now rely on private generators to maintain their operations.

According to EDL, electricity supply should be restored as soon as “the parties concerned have resolved the issue of gas-oil supplies, either under the agreement with Iraq or through another source.”

Acting Energy Minister Walid Fayyad instructed EDL and the Litani River Authority to use their remaining services to maintain water supplies.

The director of Beirut’s Rafic Hariri Airport, Fadi al-Hassan, said the facility – Lebanon’s only airport – was running on electricity from generators and he hoped for a quick solution to the crisis.

Lebanese Forces MP Razi al-Hajj strongly condemned the renewed electricity crisis, saying billions of dollars had been pumped into the sector to solve the problem and the country was once again in the dark.

In a post on the X platform, he said: “40 billion has been invested in the sector since 2010. We have been waiting for 24/7 electricity for 40 years.”

He accused politicians of repeatedly resorting to interim solutions without looking for solutions that address the real causes of the crisis.

“The solution is simple: decentralize the sector. Let’s leave production, distribution and tax collection to the private sector. We have enough of that,” he added.

Politicians have blamed each other for the crisis. The energy minister has accused the central bank of not paying its debts to Iraq. The bank has now asked parliament to give it the necessary authority to do so.

According to MP Sagih Atieh, the EDL is the main culprit because it “does not collect taxes. This is the direct cause of the crisis.” He noted that some institutions had also not paid their contributions.

Three years ago, Lebanon and Iraq signed an agreement to supply Lebanon with fuel for electricity generation.

Acting central bank governor Wassim Mansouri is refusing to transfer money from emergency foreign exchange reserves to pay for the Lebanese part of the agreement, arguing that such a move would require parliamentary approval.

The EDL does not have the necessary resources to pay for Iraq itself.

Economic and financial experts agree that nearly half of Lebanon’s public debt – a whopping $100 billion – is due to the electricity sector and efforts to resolve the chronic power shortage.