According to the Ministry of Finance, transfers to EDL witnessed a significant yearly drop of 16.74% to reach $ 293.61M in Q1 2019.
In details “Payments to fuel and oil gas suppliers KPC and SPC” (which grasped 99.69% of the total amount) decreased yearly by 12.91% to $292.72M by March 2019. This significant drop can be mainly attributed to the 5.06% yearly retreat in average prices of crude oil to $63.83 /barrel in the first 3 month of 2019 and lower Volume of imported fuel oil by 30.87% by March 2019 comparing to the same period last year. However, the volume of imported Gas oil increased yearly by 14.91% in Q1 2019.
Furthermore, EDL contributed 0.8% from a total oil bill of $295.19M by March 2019, up from its previous share of 0.6% from a total oil bill of $338.31M, in same period of 2018.
EDL transfers represented a share of 11.5% of the government’s primary expenditures, which reached $2,547B in Q1 2019, compared to a share of 10.3% in Q1 2018. In its new budget the Lebanese Cabinet has approved a plan to upgrade the electricity sector in order to narrow its deficit by improving production and distribution, and raising tariffs.
Contribution of EDL in the Total Oil Bill in March
Source : MOF