The current fuel reserves of fuel importers in Lebanon are estimated to suffice for no longer than three days, George Fayyad, the head of the Association of Petroleum Importing Companies, warned on Friday.
“Yesterday, Lebanese customs took account of the amount of fuel in companies’ tanks, and this data is now with the Central Bank of Lebanon,” Fayyad told Annahar.
The companies did not receive fresh goods on Thursday, Fayyad noted, saying that they had been awaiting a new price table based on the black-market exchange rate of the U.S. dollar.
“We were surprised by the position of the Energy Ministry, which asked us to deliver the goods today based on the subsidized price, while the customs took account of the quantities, of which we are supposed to pay the difference between the unsubsidized and subsidized price to the Central Bank.”
The companies have also not been informed of a solution to the problem of fuel subsidization, he added.
Fayyad went on to warn that the local market cannot bear a delay in this decision, stressing that the reserves at local stations are not sufficient and that the reserves of petroleum importers, as measured on Thursday, were “only enough for three days after distributing them to the markets.”
