The Central Bank has approved opening credit lines for two fuel shipments to enter the market. This has been considered a breakthrough even if partial for the crisis that Lebanese have been experiencing lately.

The fuel shipments for “Liquigas” and “Uni terminals” will enter at the exchange rate 3,900 LBP, including 80 million liters of diesel, enough for 5 to 6 days. However, the Central Bank didn’t agree on 40 million liters of gasoline that are required for the market.

Sawt Beirut International (SBI) information indicated that until this moment, the Central Bank rejects opening additional credit lines before the Parliament issues a law that legitimates using the mandatory reserves. The decision of opening two credits for diesel, came as an urgent response to secure diesel for hospitals and bakeries.

The fuel stock is sufficient for between one week and 10 days only.

Indeed, the stock of petrol stations and importers is sufficient for between one week and 10 days. The gasoline queues will worsen day after another, because the new mechanism is not set yet by the Ministry of Energy and Water. So will the ministry issue tomorrow (Wednesday 18) a schedule for the fuel prices on the subsidized price? And when will the stocks of gas stations and importing companies finish, if they didn’t reach an agreement on a new support mechanism and that new fuel ships are not unloaded?

Security Forces raided gas stations and seized large quantities of gasoline and diesel.

The Lebanese Army announced on its Twitter account that it had raided a warehouse in the Industrial City – Zouk Mosbeh, where 65,000 liters of diesel and 48,000 liters of gasoline were confiscated, which were distributed to hospitals and bakeries in the area.

On the other hand, the Internal Security Forces announced via Twitter the seizure of more than 70,000 liters of diesel stored in reservoirs and tankers, and in a scrapyard at the airport road, and the seizure of another quantity inside a sand plant in the same area by a patrol from the Judicial Suburb detachment.

The seized quantity was distributed to hospitals and generator owners.

Middle East: The telecom services at the MEA Call Center is not available.

Among the repercussions of diesel outages, Ogero services has stopped in some areas, and it was reported that there was a complete interruption of cellular data, telecom, and internet services in several regions across Akkar. This interruption along with the power and water outages caused huge confusion in all the banking, financial and production sectors, as well as public and private institutions.

The Middle East Airlines also announced that “a malfunction occurred in the Ogero network, which led to interruption in communication services through the MEA Call Center. The technical team is working to address this malfunction, and the service will be restored as soon as possible.”