The Minister of Energy and Water Mr. Joe Saddi recently uncovered during a recent interview with Nidaa al Watan that the production capacity of Electricité du Liban currently stands at 1,200 megawatts, compared to a demand ranging from two to three times said capacity. Accordingly, production capacity must be increased to address the issue, and the inclination is to establish gas-fired power plants (at least two) in cooperation with the private sector via the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) model, bearing in mind that the cost of an 800-megawatt power plant stands at around $800 million. Always in the same vein, Mr. Saddi commented that the ministry is working to secure the supply of natural gas (either via the Arab Gaz Pipeline or via a Floating storage Regasification Unit) to existing and future plants, which fares better than fuel in terms of cost efficiency and environmental impact. Mr. Saddi also unveiled that the appointment of the regulatory authority for the electricity sector is on the right track, with the next steps revolving around screening the 341 applicants who applied via the Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform “OMSAR” platform (a process expected to last two weeks), before interviewing the short-listed ones (~3 weeks) to select a president and four members. Mr. Saddi also added that only 60% of the production capacity of EDL is currently billable, as 40% is in the form of technical (10%) and non-technical (30%) losses, with the latter being attributed to encroachments on the electricity network that must be addressed in cooperation with the security forces. Finally, Mr. Saddi uncovered that the Total-led consortium has pledged to deliver the report of its findings in Block number 9 within the upcoming weeks.