Saddi updates Tripoli MPs on gas and power projects
Energy Minister Joe Saddi met Tripoli MPs and heads of professional syndicates in northern Lebanon at the Order of Engineers headquarters in Tripoli, briefing them on ministry projects involving the gas pipeline, Tripoli’s oil installations and storage tanks, and the Deir Ammar power plant’s readiness to shift from fuel oil to natural gas.
Attendees included MPs Ashraf Rifi, Elie Khoury, Taha Naji, Karim Kabbara, Ihab Matar, Haidar Nasser, and Jamil Abboud, alongside Tripoli Mayor Abdul Hamid Karimeh and representatives of the engineers’, lawyers’, pharmacists’ and physicians’ syndicates.
Saddi said maintenance of the gas pipeline feeding Deir Ammar began around two weeks ago and requires about four more weeks. The plant is ready to operate on gas, with German specialists expected to oversee the transition once gas delivery begins.
He also highlighted plans to reactivate Tripoli’s installations and storage capacity, including possible use of the Iraq-linked pipeline through Syria. Saddi said the facilities have around 110,000 tons of storage capacity that could be used for Iraqi oil intended for export.
The ministry is working on contractual and logistical arrangements for storing and exporting Iraqi oil, including the movement of tanker trucks across the Lebanese border and into Tripoli.
Saddi also cited preliminary agreement for Lebanon to join a proposed Basra-Jordan-Syria pipeline project, stressing the need to preserve the 30-40 km Lebanese section of the route from encroachments.
On electricity supply, Saddi called for equitable distribution and collection, noting that uncollected or stolen electricity amounts to around 30% of production.
He said Electricité du Liban is owed about $250 million by the state and public institutions through last December and has requested $50 million monthly for five months in bill payments.
Saddi added that Lebanon is studying a more decentralized electricity distribution model, dividing the country into regions under a system inspired by the Zahle experience.
