Iraq will extend for a year the agreement to supply fuel oil to Lebanon, which is suffering long power cuts, in exchange for services, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Thursday (August 11th).
"The Iraqi government, led by Mustafa al-Kazimi agreed at a meeting today (...) to extend the contract under which Iraq will supply fuel oil to Lebanon for a period of one year, according to the same previous conditions,” Mikati said in a statement on Thursday.
In July 2021, Iraq agreed to provide one million tons of fuel oil to run Lebanon's power plants in return for the provision of medical goods and services.
Both countries are, however, both plunged into a serious energy crisis, and electricity shortages are hampering the functioning of their hospital services.
Fuel deliveries are crucial for Lebanon, where power plants are almost shut down and load shedding reaches 23 hours a day.
However, Iraqi fuel is not directly usable in Lebanese power plants.
Beirut will therefore continue to buy another type of compatible fuel from other suppliers, who will obtain Iraqi fuel in exchange.
At its signing in 2021, the agreement between the two countries was worth between 300 and 400 million dollars.
With rising gasoline prices, the deal is "now worth $570 million, according to our latest calculations," Lebanese Energy Minister Walid Fayad told AFP in late July.
"An Iraqi ministerial delegation is expected to visit Beirut soon to agree on the services Baghdad wants in exchange for fuel," Fayad added.
Lebanon is experiencing the worst crisis in its history, marked by a vertiginous rise in prices, a historic plummeting of the national currency, an unprecedented impoverishment of the population and serious shortages.
With AFP
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