An alleged shortage of fuel, especially 80-octane gasoline, has caused long lines to appear outside gas stations in several provinces on Wednesday.
Gharbiya Governor Saeed Mostafa Kamel said the news regarding fuel shortages resulted from rumors that the new smart card system will lead to price hikes while allocating specific quantities from June 15 onwards, which is untrue.
Kamel told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the amounts of petroleum products that the province receives every day are higher than the officially allocated amounts and that they are disbursed regularly without any problems or shortages.
Meanwhile, Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) decided increasing the production of butane gas by 10 percent in June and July, so that the number of cylinders provided on a daily basis would reach 1.1 million, in order to respond t the increased demand during the holy month of Ramadan.
Adel al-Shuweikh, head of Petrogas company, said: “We have begun to import the butane gas required to fulfill the needs of distribution stores nationwide. We are working on forming a stock at Petrogas stores, in addition to the stock on tankers off Suez, to cover the consumption during Ramadan.”
Mohamed Atteya, head of the Egyptian Company for Transporting & Connecting Gas (Butagasco), said, “the work at the company’s butane gas distribution stores, estimated at 170 stores nationwide, is going regularly.”
Mohamed Ibrahim, head of Egypt Gas company, confirmed that “special arrangements are being made before Ramadan. Our teams are working on additional follow-up and maintenance.”
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
