Reforms to the Lebanese electricity sector beset by delays

ENAR

The September 15 attack on Saudi oil facilities that temporarily wiped out 5 percent of global supply did more than trigger a short-term oil trading frenzy with wild price jumps on international markets. It put into sharp relief the issue of Lebanon’s dependency on fossil fuel and—most important in the context of dismal fiscal health—its vulnerability to price increases in the market for refined oil. To question what effect a potential rise in oil prices would have on Lebanese access to energy is not just a potential problem of a 10 or 20 percent hike of gasoline prices for motorists (although such would be painful enough for many households in this car-infatuated country). The attack on the Aramco facilities in Saudi Arabia is a hint at how utterly urgent it is that Lebanon solves the problem of producing insufficient amounts of electricity at aging power plants in a fiscally costly,