Algeria will start supplying fuel for Lebanon's power plants immediately, the North African country's radio said, as quoted by Reuters.
The Reuters report noted Lebanon has been suffering electricity shortages since the 1990s but last week Electricite de Liban, the state power utility, said it had run out of fuel supplies. This led to a complete blackout in the country, including vital infrastructure such as airports, sewage systems, and water pumps.
Algerian news outlet Al24News reported that Lebanon's last power plant was forced to shut down last weekend after it ran out of fuel.
"Instructed by the Algerian President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Prime Minister Nadir Larbaoui had a telephone conversation today with the Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, to inform him of the decision taken by President Tebboune to support Lebanon in these difficult circumstances by immediately providing quantities of fuel oil to operate the power plants and restore electricity to the country," Algeria's Prime Minister's office said in Sunday.
According to media reports on the news, Lebanon's power plants run on fuel oil, which the country cannot afford to import in the volumes it needs because of its chronic financial and economic crisis. There has also been a delay in a fuel import deal with Iraq, China's Xinhua reported, citing "logistical reasons" as expressed by Lebanon's Energy Minister Walid Fayyad.
Algeria is better known for its natural gas reserves, which are considerable. It has both conventional gas reserves, and it is also estimated to have the third-largest shale gas reserves in the world after China and Argentina.
However, it also produces oil and is a member of OPEC. Its average daily output is some 1.4 million barrels but the country's government wants to boost that, to which end it earlier this year announced oil and gas investment plans of $50 billion for the next four years.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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