By Diadie Ba

DAKAR, May 21 (Reuters) - Senegal is pumping some $45
million in emergency funding into its state-run electricity
company so it can buy fuel to stave off a looming power crisis,
government officials said on Monday.

Energy sector sources said last week the former French
colony had a maximum of eight days’ fuel left to run its power
plants, meaning recent power cuts — some already lasting up to
10 hours a day — could reach "unprecedented" levels.

State electricity firm Senelec, hit by a cash crunch caused
by rising consumption and high fuel prices, owes local oil
companies more than 20 billion CFA francs ($41 million) and they
have said they will only deliver if paid up front.

"On the orders of the President, the state has injected 22
billion CFA francs ($45 million) into Senelec," the country’s
new energy minister, Samuel Sarr, told local radio.

"We have issued a 12 billion CFA guarantee to the fuel
companies so that Senelec can buy supplies 60 days in advance
rather than cash in hand," he said.

Power shortages across the Sahelian country of 11 million
people have steadily increased in recent years, tarnishing its
image as one of West Africa’s most developed states and
disrupting businesses unable to afford their own generators.

Blackouts tend to worsen during the steamy June-October
rainy season, when energy consumption climbs dramatically due to
widespread use of air conditioning in cities.

Officials said they were confident a crisis could be
averted.

"We are expecting 65,000 tonnes of fuel to be delivered
between May 20-25," Carmello Sagna, permanent secretary of
Senegal’s national hydrocarbons committee, told Reuters.

Last September, Senegal, which has no crude oil production
of its own, ordered oil firms including Royal Dutch Shell
(RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research and Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research to sell their
stocks of diesel to Senelec to run its oil-fired power stations.

Like many African countries, Senegal has suffered long-term
underinvestment and neglect of its power infrastructure,
hampering economic development despite being one of the region’s
most stable democracies since independence from France in 1960.

President Abdoulaye Wade, re-elected in February for a
5-year term in polls dismissed by opponents as flawed, has
ambitious plans to overhaul the country’s power infrastructure,
including building a nuclear power plant.

"The president is committed by the end of his term to ending
power cuts," Sarr said.