The Finance Ministry on Tuesday transferred US$200 million to the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation to finance the import of petroleum products, in particular diesel and gasoline, in order to meet local market needs in anticipation of the presidential runoff beginning Saturday.
“This money will be allocated in its entirety to the import of petroleum products that would be sold to citizens,” as well as for diesel fuel used by power plants, said Amr Mostafa, vice president of operations at the authority.
He said that while the EGPC finances 60 percent of Egypt’s fuel needs from its own resources, it still requires around US$1.3 billion per month from the Finance Ministry to import the remaining 40 percent.
Mostafa told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the amount of fuel on the market will remain stable throughout this week and next. He said that authority-affiliated and private distribution companies are pumping 40,000 tons of diesel and 16,900 tons of gasoline per day, which has helped assuage the fuel shortages experienced in several governorates.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
