Treasury transfers to Electricite du Liban (EDL) slipped by an annual 5.2% (or the equivalent of $72.15M), to stand at $1.31B in the first ten months of 2019 as per the latest data published by the Lebanese Ministry of Finance (MoF).
In detail, the drop in the value of EDL transfers was driven by a yearly 4.1% decline (or a drop of $56.0M) in “Payments to fuel KPC and Sonatrach for purchases of gas and fuel oil” (composing 99.8% of total transfers) to $1.3B by October 2019. The decrease is mainly attributed to a substantial 12.08% annual retreat in international average prices of crude oil to $64.28/barrel in the first ten month of 2019 and partly to an 11.74% decline in the volume of imported fuel oil compared to the same period last year. Nonetheless, the volume of imported Gas oil increased by an annual 10.8% by Oct. 2019. It is also worth noting that, unlike the same period last year, no Transfers of Electricity were made to Syria by Oct. 2019 which resulted in a decrease of $12.7M.
Furthermore, EDL contributed 0.31% from the total oil bill of $1.31B by Oct. 2019. Therefore, the entity’s contribution was bigger than that of last year (0.28%), noting that the bill totaled $1.36B by Oct. 2018. In nominal terms as well, EDL’s contribution was higher by Oct. 2019 as it amounted to $4M, compared to $3.85M over the same period in 2018.
On a last note, EDL transfers grasped a stake of 14.3% from public primary expenditures which totaled $9.16B by Oct. 2019, compared to a share of 13.3% by October last year.
Source : MOF