According to the Ministry of Finance, transfers to EDL rose by LBP 397.45B ($263.65M) to stand at LBP 1,350B ($895.5M), compared to LBP 952.16B ($631.6M).
This rise mainly resulted from the increase in payments to fuel and oil gas suppliers KPC and Sonatrach, which reached $867.78M by September 2017. In fact, the volumes of imported fuel rose by 8.21%, while that of gas oils dropped by a yearly 10.51%. The overall yearly payments reflected the rising global oil prices, noting that the average price of crude oil rose by 22.37% y-o-y in 2017 to $51.23/barrel by September 2017, compared to $41.87, during the same period last year.
Furthermore, EDL’s contribution to the oil bill decreased to 2% in the first 9 months of 2017, down from its previous share of 7.4% by September 2016.
Out of the government’s primary expenditures, which reached $6.78B in the period Jan-Sept 2017, EDL transfers represented a share of 13.2% of the total compared to a share of 8.7% by September 2016.
Contribution of EDL in the total oil bill
Source: MoF