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Lebanon's fuel crisis deepens as prices soar

The cash-strapped country is now looking towards Iran to meet some of its energy needs.

Reuters

Motorbike drivers wait to get fuel at a gas station in Dora, Lebanon, August 17, 2021.

Lebanese fuel prices have soared by up to 70 percent after yet another subsidy cut, official figures showed, heaping more pressure on people struggling to make ends meet in the cash-strapped country.

The cost of hydrocarbons in Lebanon has now roughly tripled in the two months since the central bank started decreasing its support for imports.

The latest cut, which is expected to cause price hikes for other key commodities, hits a Mediterranean country mired in one of the world's worst economic crises in decades.

Dire shortages have seen Lebanon's people struggle to find enough fuel to drive to work or power back-up generators during near round-the-clock electricity cuts.

Motorists have become caught up in long lines outside the petrol stations that have remained open.

The refusal of many petrol stations to sell what they do have saw the army deploy this month to seize hoarded fuel and distribute it to the needy.

Frustrations have boiled over in recent weeks, with scuffles repeatedly breaking out over scarce fuel, leaving at least three people dead.

Last weekend the explosion of a fuel tank in the north of the country killed at least 30 people.

The cost of 98- and 95-octane petrol both rose on Sunday by around two-thirds, from August 11, according to prices posted by the National News Agency.

The cost of mazout, a widely used petrol derivative, soared by 73 percent over the same period, while cooking gas was up by half.

All three fuels have tripled in cost since June.

Lebanese people continue to queue up for hours to get their hands on petrol and diesel as the government raises fuel prices to cut consumption. Journalist Imogen Kimber has more on the story pic.twitter.com/aVLmb1nZCG
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) August 23, 2021

Iran ready to ship more fuel

Iran said on Monday it is ready to ship more fuel to Lebanon if needed, a day after the leader of Lebanon's Iran-aligned Hezbollah group said more vessels carrying Iranian fuel would sail soon to help ease the country's fuel shortage.

"We sell our oil and its products based on our own decisions and the needs of our friend. Iran is ready to send fuel again to Lebanon if needed," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said in an online weekly news conference.

"Certainly we cannot see the suffering of the Lebanese people."

The latest price hikes come with more than three-quarters of the population now living in poverty.