Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Elder of Ziyon
Egypt's strategic reserves of three vital fuel products will run out by end of this month, Turkish news agency Anadulo reported on Thursday, citing Petroleum Minister Sherif Haddara.Daily News Egypt adds:
According to Haddara, Egypt has enough diesel fuel to last eight days, butane enough for ten days and petrol enough for 14 days.
Ministry officials declined to comment on the Anadolu report when contacted by Ahram Online.
The news agency stated that the government was currently providing the nation's gas 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.
In recent weeks and months, Egypt has seen a spate of intermittent power blackouts, which government officials have attributed to chronic fuel shortages.
Haddara said that the current fuel quantities were meant to meet national demand, attributing ongoing shortages to hoarding and smuggling activities.
Former petroleum minister Osama Kamal recently estimated that smuggling and black market activity accounted for as much as 20 percent of all fuel the ministry provides to the local market.
He also blamed bad public energy-consumption habits. "Fuel isn't consumed rationally because it's sold at very cheap prices," he said.
According to Anadolu, the Egyptian government has requested a $265 million loan from the Islamic Development Bank to finance the import of diesel in the first quarter of 2013/14.
The news website of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party quoted Supply Minister Bassem Ouda on Thursday as saying that the state's current reserves of diesel fuel were "sufficient."
In August, the government intends to introduce a smart-card fuel allocation system aimed at reducing energy subsidies. The new system will allow consumers to purchase limited amounts of subsidised fuel, beyond which they will have to pay market prices.
According to Reuters, Egypt, which owes more than $5 billion to fuel suppliers, has shifted to large Swiss trading houses after small firms stopped delivering to the financially crippled nation, fearing that it will fail to pay.Egypt is doomed.
The Egyptian government has been struggling with a shortage of fuel, a predicament symptomatic of an ailing economy stuck in a downward spiral since the revolution in 2011. While some attribute this crisis, which has hit the country’s industrial sector, power plants and fuel stations, to smugglers and bootleg markets, the American Chamber of Commerce said it’s the result of “the government’s recent inability to pay its fuel suppliers.”
Litasco, Glencore, Gunvor, Trafigura, Vitol and Mercuria are currently Egypt’s main suppliers; smaller firms such as BB Energy, AOT Trading, Eminent, Augusta and Sahara have stopped selling it fuel, Reuters reported earlier this week.
(h/t Missing Peace)
UPDATE: Commenter Niklas points to this new video on YouTube showing a line to get fuel in Egypt that takes over four minutes to drive past:
