Energy Thread Focusing on Lebanon & Israel

1/6 #Hezbollah released a video showing some Israeli sites, including oil storage tanks at different locations. Below are some notes:

#Israel #Lebanon #OOTT #Energy 2/6 On Israel's oil storage tanks ( these can be seen in the Hezbollah video): it is read as a threat from the group to hit Israeli energy infrastructure. Around the same time today (June 22), Yemen's #Houthis claimed they had hit vessels at the Haifa port (these claims are not new and they've been going on for some time) along with armed groups in Iraq. These are part of the propaganda machine/psychological warfare (whatever term you use) in this war. The Hezbollah video ends with the words of Hezbollah's leader: "Whoever thinks of war against us will regret it." 

In addition to the ongoing attacks from both sides, the war of words between Hezbollah and Israel has now escalated to more alarming levels, amid fears in the region of a wider war.

#Iraq's oil ministry announced today the "start of trial operations" at the 140,000 bpd Karbala refinery- considered part of Iraq's refinery upgrade plans to address product imbalance & improve product yields. (Photo circulated by the oil ministry) #OOTT . More below: 2) Iraq will most likely continue to remain a net importer of gasoline and gasoil through 2030, some have noted.

Thread on #Iran-#Lebanon energy talks through history, and recent reports about Iranian fuel oil "donation" to Lebanon for power plants (which require different oil products of different specs), with a focus on what Beirut-based Al Akhbar newspaper said earlier today: 1)Lebanese-Iranian energy talks date back to at least 2000. That year, Tehran offered to upgrade Lebanon's power plants&refineries amid talks of "resuming" crude oil flows from Iraq's Kirkuk to the Med. This did not happen, and talks remained talks.

#Lebanon: My new work for @amwajmedia on the current disorder in Lebanon’s energy sector: what triggered it, immediate solution to allow discharge of more fuel ships- ready to be offloaded- &Hezbollah’s narrative of need for Iranian oil in light of this: bit.ly/3mgifTI I focus 1) on the abdication of a govt body that has long presented itself as a "market regulator", & the distribution+ sales problems compounded by the state's short-sighted fiscal policies, causing delays in unloading oil tankers that have continuously called on #Lebanon.

#Lebanon: Guess it’s time for a thread on Lebanon’s energy imports sector due to some misinformation. 1)Oil tankers in general have never stopped calling on Lebanon. Tankers laden with fuel oil ( for power generation), gasoil/diesel, gasoline, and LPG (cooking gas). Lebanon is not under "siege" as some continue to say without offering solid data.

On Lebanon's civil society: I have noticed that a number of observers are trying to understand the #LebanonProtests. The protests are not magic.They’re product of years of work:The work of Lebanon's civil society that needs to be acknowledged. #لبنان_يثور #لبنان__ينتفض #Beirut 1)Many remember the protests in 2015 that were covered by international media- now since that year, activists managed to achieve successes in some areas for first time, challenging the existing political system they're fighting. I will focus on elections in 2017/18: