Cairo: Fears of an electricity crunch in crisis-hit Lebanon grew on Friday after a Turkish company halted its power supplies to the country amid financial and legal disputes.
The Turkish firm Karpowership had supplied about 25 per cent of Lebanon’s electricity through two barges. On Friday, the company said it had shut down the supplies.
A Lebanese prosecutor has recently ordered seizing the firm’s ships over corruption allegations. Karpowership has denied the accusations, saying it has not received due payments for 18 months.
The state Lebanon Electricity Corporation Friday confirmed the shutdowns, saying it reduced the country’s overall power generation by around 240 megawatts.
Spare parts
The corporation renewed a request for getting financial allocations to import the fuel necessary for generating electricity and spare parts for power facilities to “guarantee the minim stability in Lebanon’s electricity needs”, according to a statement carried by the Lebanese state news agency.
Lebanon grapples with its worst financial crisis since the 1975-90 civil war. In recent months, the country has suffered electricity shortages, prompting an increasing reliance on privately owned generators.
Last August, Lebanon saw a deadly explosion at the Beirut port that also devastated large parts of the city and fuelled public outrage against the country’s ruling class.
The government resigned days after the blast, but has since acted in a caretaker capacity amid a deadlock in efforts to form a new government.
