Energy Minister Urges Arab Banks to Invest in Lebanon’s Oil Sector

Gebran Bassil, Minister of Energy and Water, Lebanon has called the Arab banks to invest in Lebanon’s oil sector.

Bassil added in his keynote speech at the second day of the Annual Arab Banking Conference 2013 which organized by the Union of Arab Banks in Beirut, Lebanon that ‘enjoying huge and wealth gas and oil’, calling the banks to invest in oil sector, asserting that this sector will revive Lebanon’s economy again to get out of its crisis.

He said the indexes revealed the size of Lebanon’s gas and oil resources, pointing out that the exploration process will lead to financial security of Lebanon, and it will improve the credit rating of Lebanese that fell recently, and reduce the borrowing cost of Lebanese state.

He pointed out that after signing oil contracts, his country can start exploring oil and gas within short period around 18 months by the virtue of the accuracy of the Lebanese oil surveys.

He talked about the Arab Banks, saying the projects including electricity, water and oil fields are ready, but it lacks funding, noting that there are large-scale projects most notably, the construction dams in Lebanon.

He asserted that the day when the rating of his country has dropped, the country was signed a loan with one of the major international banks worth $360million so as to establish power plant and electric power plants.

This affair has opened the door for the international borrowing in Lebanon’s electric field.

He further emphasized that the problems and deficits of the electricity sector will push the country to pay $2billion each year, raising the debts, and Lebanese citizens will also pay $2billion through restoring for alternatives such as their participation in electric generators as result of power outages, in addition, $2billion general cost of Lebanese state because of this situation, but the total current losses of electricity sector of Lebanese economy are around $6billion.