Iraq’s government has agreed to continue supplying Lebanon’s electricity company with heavy fuel oil for another year, Zawya reports.
Thursday’s Lebanese caretaker PM Najib Mikati said that he had made a request to Mustafa al-Kadhemi for an extension of the agreement signed last January under the same terms.
Baghdad offered Beirut 1,000,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil per annum in exchange for services such as health care for Iraqi citizens.
To ease an acute power shortage, the Lebanese government turned toward Iraq for fuel. This crisis situation reached crisis proportions last summer because the government couldn’t subsidize fuel imports.
These subsidies were removed by the cash-strapped Lebanese Government, and domestic fuel costs skyrocketed. Fuel shortages also faced power plants. Reuters reported that many homes were left without power for 22 hours every day.
Source: north africa post
