The Energy Ministry announced that Energin DMCC, a Dubai-based international trading company, won a tender to supply diesel to Electricité du Liban (EDL) for five months, marking a first for the public utility.  EDL usually relies on ad hoc fuel purchases or shipments under a summer 2021 agreement with Iraq that allows for deferred payments.  Four companies took part in the tender launched Dec. 23, 2025, as part of a process initiated by Energy Minister Joe Saddi to “ensure the stability of petroleum product imports and strengthen good governance,” the ministry said.  The agreed premium is $69.70 per metric ton of transported diesel, in addition to the fuel price itself, priced at market rates. The tender covers 275,000 metric tons, with a margin of plus or minus 5 percent at EDL’s request, the ministry said.  Deliveries will be made in 10 shipments between the second half of February and the second half of June. The ministry said the tender was relaunched after an initial attempt late in 2025 attracted only one bidder, prompting Saddi to cancel the first procedure.  The diesel is expected to be supplied to the Deir Ammar power plant in north Lebanon and the Zahrani plant in the South. The two generate most of the few hundred megawatts EDL is currently producing, providing fewer than 10 hours of electricity per day nationwide.  A ministry source said the fuel will be paid for directly from EDL revenues. Electricity tariffs were adjusted to market prices in 2022, and the utility has since been urged to improve bill collection.  Saddi confirmed this point in a separate statement, saying fuel purchases for EDL are made by the ministry at the utility’s request and are paid exclusively from its own revenues “to avoid contracting debts that would be borne by taxpayers.”  The ministry source also confirmed that another diesel tanker, which had been stranded off the Lebanese coast for several days due to bad weather, was eventually able to dock and unload its cargo after tests were completed. The shipment was supplied by a different EDL contractor, hired for a single cargo that arrived in December but was initially deemed non compliant for technical reasons. The ministry rejected the first shipment and required the supplier, Novum Energy Trading, to replace the cargo at its own expense, as stipulated in the contract. (ICE BEIRUT)

Fonte notizia: L'Orient Today