Fuel Crises Escalate in Lebanon

Crises in Lebanon escalated to include one of the most effective commodities in daily life, fuel.

As news spread, car owners rushed to petrol stations before they run out of gas, especially after some of them were stuck in the Sidon area, the official Naional News Agency (NNA) reported.

While the demonstrations were widespread in the streets of Lebanon to protest against the deteriorating living conditions, and high prices, gas stations continued to close one after the other, having crowds rush to other stations, after a press conference held by the union for fuel distributors and gas stations to explain the parameters of the crisis.

The representative of the fuel distributors, Fadi Abu Shakra, said that 60 percent of Lebanon's stations ran out of fuel and closed, and the other 40 percent continue to sell.

on November 9,  after news that imported oil derivatives are delivered only in US dollars and without the official rate approved by the Banque du Liban, the rush of citizens to the petrol stations intensified in the capital Beirut.

Also, the number of closed stations feeding the capital's cars increased, and the remaining stations set the filling cap to a maximum of 15 liters.

The wave of closures included petrol stations in the Tyre area, but some of them kept a little gasoline, renewed the scene of queues for surveillance cameras in the streets of the region, as well as other areas such as Aley and Metn districts, which closed on Saturday evening after running out of fuel.

The villages of West Bekaa and Rachaya have witnessed a fuel crisis with dozens of fuel stations lifting their hoses after running out of quantities of gasoline and diesel.

Movements have also been witnessed on consumer goods amid complaints of rising prices.

Finally, the Koura district, like many other areas, has joined the scope of the fuel crisis, where stations have run out of stockpile permanently, while others are experiencing a large congestion, and stations refrained from mobilizing only for their customers.

A number of citizens complained that some tried to exploit the situation to raise prices, as was the case in Halba, where most of the petrol stations in Akkar closed after running out of gasoline, while a few others are suffocating before closing their doors soon.

Moody's said in its report on the classification of the three largest banks operating in Lebanon, that its decision to downgrade "reflects the limited regular funding and liquidity conditions in light of the growing political uncertainty and deterioration in the operating environment of banks."

The protests that erupted in Lebanon weeks ago resulted in the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, disruption of reform opportunities in the 2020 budget, and further withdrawals from the country's already depleted foreign exchange reserves.

Moody's said in its report that it expects the central bank's foreign exchange reserves of about $ 5 billion-10 billion 'likely to be depleted' in future payments to service the government's external debt, estimated at $ 6.5 billion this year and the following one, Including $ 1.5 billion due on November 28.