Bassil Says Fatmagul Sultan Vessel to Assume Production within a Week

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Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil revealed on Friday that production units on Fatmagul Sultan power vessel will resume work within a week.

“The matter has been resolved,” Bassil said in comments published in al-Akhbar newspaper.

The newspaper reported that the period is to import the adequate fuel for the production units after the Turkish Karadeniz power company, which leased the power vessel, said that the fuel it had received to operate the ship “was not convenient.”

The company said in a statement in April that "the results of tests conducted by international laboratories revealed that the fuel we have been receiving was not convenient."

The statement detailed that before the malfunction occurred, the vessel had completed the operational examination phase under the supervision of a group of international independent experts and had started generating 188 megawatts of power, "even before the date mentioned in the contract had started."

In April, President Michel Suleiman tasked the Central Inspection Authority to investigate the causes of the malfunctions of the “Fatmagul Sultan” power-generating vessel.

He tasked the authority to uncover the circumstances that led to the malfunctions and determine the sides responsible for it.

Nine out of 11 generators on the Fatmagul Sultan barge have stopped functioning, media reports said, pointing out that the power-generating vessel is only producing 15 percent of its capacity, which is 27 megawatts.

Lebanon inked in July 2012 a $360 million three-year contract with the Turkish firm to lease electricity-generating vessels.

The two barges could generate 270 megawatts of electricity.

The second vessel is expected to arrive in June.

The power vessels should help make up for the power shortage that will be caused by the rehabilitation of the Zouk and Jiyeh power plants.

Lebanon is in need of 2,500 megawatts of electricity while the current production is only 1,500 MW.

Comments 14
Thumb geha 17 May 2013, 09:40

the worst sinister of electricity we ever had.

Default-user-icon Zaturn (Guest) 17 May 2013, 11:24

Gebran Bassil and Nicolas Sehnaoui have achieved during their tenure far more than others before them have, in over a decade. But naturally the haters of the opposite camp will bash them anyway out of spite.

Missing peace 17 May 2013, 19:12

i remember when fneish was minister of energy he never did a thing but talk "resistance" against israel....first example....

Missing thatisit 17 May 2013, 12:39

imbecile the minister of stupidity and the son of law of an idiot

Missing ya_kord 17 May 2013, 13:40

get a life... still nothing better to do than to comment on a site u disagree with... no one comments on this site more than you, thinking its your duty to try to spread Syrian propaganda, although non of their sites allow you to post if not pro comments, something that you had no response for even though I pressed you on it last time. loooooser go get a life!

Missing ghzayel 18 May 2013, 11:50

damn right!!! orange tv, almanar,nbn, tayar org ...and in all of 8th of march and pro iranian and pro assad media do they allow a single voice of dissent ya flamethrower; do they give opposing views the same opportunity you get on this site???

Default-user-icon me (Guest) 17 May 2013, 16:05

these guys never achieved anything. They excel at auto-satisfaction and marketing press releases. The funniest one is the other idiot announcing 4G while dsl speed (tested a few minutes ago) is at 500k (worse than Zambia)... They are purely and simply incompetent.

Missing peace 17 May 2013, 16:54

just look at some of the FPM top 10 and their present fortune... they had nearly nothing a few years ago and now are able to buy buildings.... how is that? not with their salary for sure....

Missing me__ 18 May 2013, 16:46

Ft, now you are showing you are incompetent. In any democracy what you describe is called conflict of interest. Politicians should not do any business if their 'exposure' give them more opportunities... Seems like you acknowledge that they are getting richer while at office, thank you for making our case!

Missing me__ 18 May 2013, 19:29

They are getting more business because they are better known -) ... What? How old are u? 8?

Missing samiam 17 May 2013, 20:27

Had the ship for two months-1 month on, on month off---sort of a sad rendition of the original karate kid.

and the worse thing is, after the ships (assuming they work) complete their term, we will have the same amount of electricity as before.

Default-user-icon Zaturn (Guest) 18 May 2013, 13:21

Correct. We can safely assume that no matter which side is in power by the time the ships' terms are completed, neither Zouk nor Jieh plants will be "rehabilitated". They didn't do it in 25 years, how would they in three?

Default-user-icon Zaturn (Guest) 18 May 2013, 12:15

And before that M14 had hell of plenty of time in power to deliver. Still here we are. Perhaps now we can agree that both sides only care about their propaganda and worst of all, the Lebanese people blindly and devotedly follow one camp or another, to the extent of insulting and often, shooting each other.

Default-user-icon Zaturn (Guest) 18 May 2013, 12:55

The spite and hypocrisy of those blasting ministers Bassil (and Sehnaoui) is obvious. At least those two achieved some things that have not happened in more than a decade, under the opposite camp.