Head of Gas Workers and Distributors and Gas Supplies Sector’s Syndicate in Lebanon, Farid Zainoun, denounced “the Ministry of Energy’s failure to date, to replace old gas flasks, with new ones, especially since the replacement process is completely halted.”

He said in a statement: “All successive energy ministers dealt with the replacement decision with all responsibility, considering that the old flasks are time bombs in homes and others, and therefore it is inevitable that the replacement process will continue immediately. Despite our repeated demands that it poses a danger to citizens, especially since there are still 900,000 old flasks. This means that companies operating in the gas sector must replace 3.33 flasks for each ton of gas, especially since Lebanon consumes about 250 thousand tons of domestic gas annually, and the annual replacement rate was supposed to be 832,500, and the ministry announced the need to replace 4 million Flasks, since the decision was issued on 1/13/2015 and to date, the time period is 5 and a half years. This is more than the ministry’s decision to secure the replacement of 4 million.”

Zainoun was surprised, “This sensitive file was ignored by Energy Minister Walid Fayyad without any justification for stopping the process, knowing that the money is available in the ministry’s budget, which is currently estimated at 70 billion pounds,” asking; “Where does the money noted in a special item go to replace the flasks in the price-installation table? At a time when it charges 3900 pounds for each gas bottle to supplement the replacement .”
He believed that “the Minister of Energy should implement the replacement process immediately without any hesitation or delay, in order to preserve public safety and protect the lives of citizens from its direct and immediate danger.”