BEIRUT,  (Reuters) – Lebanon has no centrally generated electricity after fuel shortages forced its two largest power stations to shut down, a government official told Reuters on Saturday. “The Lebanese power network completely stopped working at noon today, and it is unlikely that it will work until next Monday, or for several days,” the official said. The state electricity company confirmed in a statement that the thermoelectric plant at the Zahrani power station had stopped. The Deir Ammar plant stopped on Friday. The shutdown of the two power stations had “directly affected the stability of the power network and led to its complete outage, with no possibility of resuming operations in the meantime,” the statement said.

The Lebanese army agreed to provide 6,000 kilolitres of gas oil distributed equally between the two power stations, the state electricity company said in a statement reported by National News Agency. This quantity will secure power in Lebanon for three days, the statement added. Many Lebanese normally rely on private generators that run on diesel, although that is in short supply. Lebanon has been paralysed by an economic crisis which has deepened as supplies of imported fuel have dried up. The Lebanese currency has fallen by 90% since 2019. Reporting by Laila Bassam; Writing by Nayera Abdallah and Enas Alashray; Editing by William Maclean and Mike Harrison Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.