The Lebanese Ministry of Finance (MOF) published its monthly snapshot on government transfers to Electricité Du Liban (EDL), revealing a $458.39 million annual decrease in the amounts transferred to LBP 1,018.31 billion ($675.5 million) in the first nine months of 2020, down from LBP 1,709.33 billion ($1,133.9 million) during that same period in 2019. This owes primarily to the 40.5% y-o-y drop in the value of gas and fuel purchases from KPC and Sonatrach to LBP 1,015.59 billion ($673.7 million) in light of the lower volumes of imported fuel, coupled with a drop in the average price of crude oil over the concerned period. In fact, the quantity of imported fuel oil plunged by 21.60% on a yearly basis by end of September, with that of imported gas oil dropping by 13.13%. On the other hand, the weighted average price of crude oil fell by 36.84% y-o-y to $41.00 per barrel YTD September 2020, from $64.91 a year before, according to MOF statistics.

It is worth noting that the amounts transferred to EDL constituted 9.28% of the government’s total primary expenditures during the first nine months of 2020, compared to 15.46% in the same period a year earlier.