Feature: Smuggling Lebanese mazout to Syria new profitable business

Lebanon has seen mounting smuggling of mazout oil to Syria, making it difficult for ordinary people to buy the fuel even during the recent snow storm that hit the nation.

Salma Abou Rizk, a Lebanese from Bekaa vally, told Xinhua that all gas stations claims that they do not have the mazout, which is sold on the black market at prices higher than the official rate by three dollars.

The crisis of smuggling mazout oil from Lebanon to Syria has been on the rise recently and what made matters worse was the recent cold weather that has hit the eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea.

According to Abou Mohammad al-Ghaziri, an active smuggler between Lebanon and Syria through the illegal passages on the Bekaa eastern border, the smuggling of mazout to Syria "has turned into the most profitable business these days."

"Mazout is needed for the loyalists to Syrian President Bashar Assad for their military vehicles and for the opponents for heating their hideouts, Ghaziri pointed out.

He said that thousands of militants are hiding in caves and in the mountains and that they need plenty of mazout to keep warm and face the severe cold as snow is covering their hideouts in the Qalamoun region and on the fronts of Arsal and Ras Baalbeck in the eastern parts of the country.

A poultry owner in the Bekaa region also said that he failed to buy five thousand liters of mazout during the last week, which he needs for the poultry generators every two weeks.

"There is a Lebanese-Syrian mazout mafia smuggling the product to Syria and this mafia includes station owners and owners of trucks who are backed by gunmen and smugglers, he told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, a source at the Lebanese Energy Ministry told Xinhua that "the quantity of mazout distributed daily is higher than the market demand which ranges between five and nine million liters per day, but it seems that it is being smuggled to Syria."

Echoing what the source said, Abou Georges, owner of an import and export company specialized in the trade of oil products, said that the need of the Lebanese market these days is not more than four million liters per day while the companies release about 9 million liters.

"I do not know where the additional quantity goes," he wondered, adding that "there are five million liters we are unaware of their destination amid rumors that they are being smuggled to Syria."

The price of mazout in Syria is higher by six dollars than that in Lebanon, he said, noting that the quantity of mazout imported this year to Lebanon was higher by 120 million liters than last year, which proves there is a "huge smuggling business."

Abou Adham, one of the well-known smugglers of mazout in the Bekaa region, told Xinhua that he is "cooperating with Lebanese and Syrian sides who share common interests in the success of the smuggling operations."

He said "besides the financial profits, smuggling mazout helps alleviate the suffering of the Syrians who are facing an extremely cold weather.

Lebanon and Syria have a 330 kilometers border line with many illegal passages that are very hard on the authorities to monitor. Endit