The Fuel Shortage in Egypt

[DJKeefy]

The Fuel Shortage in Egypt

2 different stories:

Egypt officials attribute fuel shortage to hoarding, smuggling. & Government minister blames temporary technical issues for disrupted supply.


Egypt officials attribute fuel shortage to hoarding, smuggling.

Long queues outside nation's gas stations are due primarily to illegal smuggling activities, Tuesday report by presidency asserts.

Egypt is not suffering a petrol shortage and the long queues outside gas stations are mainly attributable to false rumours that the government plans to halt the supply of octane products, Egypt's petroleum minister said Tuesday.

"Egyptians' worries have pushed them to hoard petrol products," Sherif Haddara said at a Tuesday press conference attended by the ministers of supply, electricity and local development.

Last week, Turkish news agency Anadolu quoted Haddara as saying that Egypt's strategic reserves of three vital fuel products would run out by the end of this month.

Haddara said Tuesday that long queues of motorists at the nation's gas stations would be over "within days."

The petroleum ministry provides 1,520 tonnes of Octane 80 per day to the nation's gas stations, while national consumption stands at 1,370 tonnes daily.

The petrol minister added that the daily supply of Octane 90 and 92 currently stands at 2,565 tonnes.

Haddara also attributed motorists' queues to a new smart-card system, recently implemented in hopes of reducing energy subsidies, at most gas stations.

For his part, Supply Minister Bassem Ouda has said that some gas stations were refusing to sell octane to the public, going on to threaten violators with severe penalties.

In a related development, the presidency issued a report on Tuesday citing reasons for the recent fuel shortage, in which it blamed the shortfall on illegal smuggling activities.

The report put the amount of fuel smuggled since Egypt's 2011 uprising at an estimated 350.5 million litres of diesel oil and 52.1 million litres of petrol.

The presidency also attributed the lack of fuel to ongoing foreign currency shortages, noting that the state-run Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation’s current debts stood at an estimated $5.4 billion.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/74952.aspx


Government minister blames temporary technical issues for disrupted supply.

Lines at petrol stations get longer as government minister blames temporary technical issues for disrupted supply amid reports of deeper crisis.

Long lines of fuel-hungry motorists have once more paralysed traffic in Egypt as yet another wave of fuel shortages hits the country.

Though the lines have been a recurring feature of Egypt's post-revolutionary landscape, the latest shortages have caused particular public anxiety as they come ahead of planned anti-government protests on Sunday.

Nihad Shelbaya, public affairs officer at Exxon Mobil, said she heard Egypt's petroleum minister on the radio on Tuesday morning blaming the crisis on technical issues which delayed the distribution of fuel from Cairo's main depot in Mostorod over the past days.

"The delays probably sparked a buying panic as motorists grew worried that fuel would not be available in the coming days, so people are rushing to fill their tanks," Shelbaya said.

The country is bracing for massive protests on 30 June, as well as pre-emptive demonstrations by Islamist forces in support of President Morsi over the weekend.

"But whatever the reasons it is clear that the volumes of fuel received by stations in the past days are not the usual ones," Shelbaya added.

The quantities of fuel, particularly petrol, supplied to stations by the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation in the past days have been 20 to 30 percent below normal levels, said an anonymous source at state-run COOP (Petroleum Cooperative Society Company).

But on Saturday, officials at a press conference attended by Prime Minister Hisham Qandil had affirmed the contrary.

"Fuel quantities distributed to gas stations exceed consumption by 20 to 30 percent,” said Tarek El-Barkatawi, head of the Egyptian General Petroleum Company, who blamed the shortages on smuggling activities.

In April, then-Petroleum Minister Osama Kamal told Ahram Online that he estimated that smuggling and black markets accounted for not less than 20 percent of all fuel that the ministry provided to the market.

Last week, government officials announced that the fuel-rationing smart cards to be introduced in July and August would be used primarily to combat smuggling.

"The real reason behind the shortages is the lack of dollar liquidity, which has affected fuel imports," the COOP source said.

The Egyptian pound, which has steadily been slipping against the dollar since the Central Bank of Egypt began auctioning foreign currency in late December, fell below LE7 to the US dollar on the official exchange market on 19 June.

Last week, Turkish news agency Anadolu cited Petroleum Minister Sherif Haddara saying that Egypt's strategic reserves of three vital fuel products would run out by the end of this month.

According to Haddara, Egypt has enough diesel fuel to last eight days, butane for ten days and petrol for 14 days.

Ministry officials declined to comment on the Anadolu report when contacted by Ahram Online.

According to the agency, the government has been providing the nation's petrol stations with 18,000 tonnes of octane per day and 37,000 tonnes of diesel fuel, while also providing the country's power stations with 23,000 tonnes of low-quality mazut fuel.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/74932.aspx

[DJKeefy]

Well the roads seem very quiet today, Ive rang a few people and most are without fuel. I was told that even there is no fuel on the black market.

Yesterday night a problem at the petrol station in Gezira, just up from Awlmier(sp) led to hundreds of people fighting on the street, bottles and bricks were thrown at people and cars along quite a distance of the road, cars and minibuses did a quick retreat, for sure people got hurt and vechicles got damaged, this was all done during a powercut and the road was in complete darkness, many police turned up but seemed to not get to much invovled, I went out and after a few hours came back via bayadier(sp) 2 big police/army trucks has turned up, quite a few people was still on the street with big sticks, the road was covered with glass and bricks/stones. (power was back on).

The Egyptians are getting tired/angry and it wont be long before they explode big time.

[Chocolate Eclair]

I agree with you totally on that Keefy, we Brits are known to have a very long fuse, but even some of us are getting fed up now. This stagnant way forward and jumping from one crisis to another, is a sign the the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing, I have often wondered who thinks ahead in Egypt and who just lives for today, and the answer is coming up soon.

There was no petrol at 6.00am when I went into Luxor yesterday, so just did what I had to and came out, to preserve fuel, noticed the West Bank of Horus Bridge, a bus full of tourists stuck in the petrol queue had started their camcorders and were shooting with their cameras has if their were no tomorrow, so I may get on the internet soon, (Oh No, not again for the Lowlife to have a go. )

The blackouts give the people whose fuse has reached its end the opportunity to explode with reasonable protection against being exposed.

Its a catch 22 position, fuel your cars, or fuel the power stations, your choice! But certainly when i left Luxor yesterday the traffic was very light in comparison.

[Dusak]

My long term taxi driver has been banging on for the last four days that there is no petrol. Yet he drives his taxi looking for business. He says that on the black market he has to pay between 120-130 Le per gallon, has no money for this due to lack of business, but still drives around. He states that there is none on the black market now, but he drives his taxi around. For the last two years I have payed him 60Le from Karnak to Luxor [Indian restaurant] which I think is a good price. I've done this to help him out. Plus, as is now happening, he gets all the work for transporting my seven friends around that are staying at the Etapy. There is no petrol, but he is never without. He is now hinting that due to the shortages and the high prices that have to be paid for this so called non existent petrol, he may have to charge more for each trip. He then says that he was somewhere when he met a man that was attempting to get to Cairo but could not find enough petrol for the journey, so he went home and gave this man a free gallon of non existent, overpriced petrol for nothing. They just do not get it when you start to question all these contradictory statements. But one thing they do understand is when you tell them that there are plenty taxi's on the roads that would be happy with 40Le to Luxor and back.

[LivinginLuxor]

Pre-revolution, I hardly noticed any fuel shortages - petrol or gas, post-revolution, constant shortages. You have to ask are these shortages politically inspired by supporters of the old regime? Are they being engineered to bring about mass anger and protest, so that the old regime's supporters can seize power?

[Chocolate Eclair]

You are very correct with your statement L in L, and you may also be very correct with your thoughts as well...