Minister of Energy Gebran Bassil Beirut – George Shahin Minister of Energy Gebran Bassil announced the continuation of the meetings to start using energy generated by ships to provide enough time for the rehabilitation of thermal plants. The Minister also said that the government is considering ships as one of the possible options to produce energy over a period from four to six months.
Bassil mentioned the possibility during a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Najib Mikati with the members of the ministerial committee who are assigned to study companies\' offers to hire ships for generating energy: the Minister of Finance, Minister of Energy and Water, Minister of Environment and a number of consultants and technicians from the ministries of Energy and Environment.
Following the meeting, Minister Bassil stated that the ministerial committee, which is assigned to study the companies\' offers, held a second meeting. The first part of the meeting was with the international consultant who presented a summary of his work and that the second part was for negotiating and searching for the qualified companies, while the third part was for re-collecting the whole papers and agreeing on how to follow-up the issue. \"The committee will hold a meeting next Tuesday to choose the best company and option\", he added.
Bassil was asked the following questions:
Q. when will the production start to hire the ships?
A. It depends on the offers. Some of them were offering a period of four months, while others offered six months.
Q. Do you expect a lit summer with electricity?
A. If the ships are brought, it does not necessarily mean that the summer will be lit, as hiring ships is a partial and a transitional option to help rehabilitate the laboratories.