EDL Officials Warn of Darkness if Cabinet Doesn't Approve Fuel Oil Funds

Electricity du Liban officials have warned that the government's failure to legitimize the release of funds by the finance ministry to buy fuel oil would have detrimental effects on electricity.

The officials, who were not named, told al-Liwaa newspaper in remarks published on Thursday that the issue should be resolved within a week because the fuel oil available for the state-run EDL would be depleted.

The company will have to resort to severe rationing and a complete power outage, they said.

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said Wednesday that his ministry will not issue letters of credit to EDL without the approval of Prime Minister Tammam Salam's government which hasn't yet received parliament's vote of confidence over the failure to agree on its policy statement.

Khalil said he made a written request to the cabinet to approve the release of funds by the ministry to allow EDL to buy the fuel oil needed to avert severe power outages.

Despite the warning of the EDL official, finance ministry officials played down his remarks saying Salam has promised Khalil to resolve the problem within two days.

“Citizens will not feel any change in the electricity feed,” they said.

But Beirut plunged in darkness on Wednesday night after powerful wind gusts and bad weather separated the power stations from the main network.

Chronic power shortages since the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war have been a main source of grievance among Lebanese who live outside Beirut and have had to put up with hours of daily cuts.

But the capital suffers only three hours of power cuts per day.