After a six-month delay because of an ongoing probe into 10 million liters of lost fuel, the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has finally paid SR 40 million owed to some of its transport contractors.

The SEC had cleared these contractors of any wrongdoing during its investigation. A number of contractors confirmed they had been paid by the SEC.

The fuel went missing between May 2011 and January 2013 on shipments to SEC power plants across the Kingdom.

Some contractors have not been paid yet because they have not submitted claims or invoices. The SEC said it would deduct any amount from future claims if investigators found that the carriers were to blame for the lost quantities.

A contractor, Bandar Al-Jabri, said he received all his financial dues. He said malfunctioning meter readers were responsible for the problem and that it “proved that contractors were not involved in the issue of the lost fuel.”