Sep 02, 2008 - BBC Monitoring

Lebanon's Minister of Energy and Water Resources Alain Tabourian on Monday [1 September] announced that Lebanon reached an agreement to acquire around 450 megawatts of electricity from Egypt via Jordan and Syria, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. Under the agreement, Egypt is scheduled to convey around 450 megawatts of electricity to Lebanon daily for a one-year term, the minister said at a press conference yesterday.

Tabourian also briefed the press on the results of a meeting held by the energy ministers of Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon in Amman last week.

Tabourian said Egypt reiterated its willingness to generate and provide Lebanon with 450 megawatts of electricity daily, while Jordan expressed its readiness and capacity to transmit the power via the Kingdom. Accordingly, a Lebanese work team will visit Egypt to discuss the cost, Tabourian said, expressing hope that an appropriate solution will be agreed on soon so that Lebanon can obtain its electricity needs from Egypt.

Trials are under way, the minister noted, adding that the deal should be finalised within two weeks.

During last week's ministerial meeting, Jordan said it was ready to provide Lebanon with electric power through the joint electric grid, or by generating electricity and selling it to Lebanon. The Kingdom offered to provide Lebanon with 50 to 70 megawatts of electricity on daily basis up to the end of 2009, Energy Minister Khaldoun Qteishat said. Earlier, Lebanon had asked Egypt, Syria and Jordan, which constitute part of the joint-electric grid project, also connecting Iraq, Libya and Turkey, to provide it with electric power.

Lebanon has been suffering from a shortage of electric power and its production capacity is well short of its needs.

Source: Jordan Times website, Amman, in English 2 Sep 08

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