Gasoline shortages persist across the country despite efforts to ease the crisis, reports Ahmed Kotb For a second week in a row, acute gasoline shortages are crippling mobility across the country, with long car and truck queues parking for hours in front of gas stations that are dry most of the time. In their search for fuel, many drivers have to wait for hours in order to fill their tanks, and even then they sometimes do not get the amount they need. "Some stations limit the quota for each car to 20 litres," said a taxi driver waiting in line at one of Cairo's gas stations. He added that this quantity enables him to work for less than two hours before he has to queue yet again. "This means I get to wait in lines more than I work," he said. "I don't make any money out of that." Transportation fees in many areas have increased in recent days as a result of the fuel shortage. Mustafa Ibrahim, a 25-year-old worker at a factory in Helwan, now pays at least LE3 instead of LE2 to get to work. "At rush hour, microbus drivers sometimes double the fee," Ibrahim said. Others appear to have given up on the situation altogether. Mohamed Ghanem, a 40-year-old accountant, has decided not to use his car until the crisis is over. "I parked my car in front of the house, and started to use the metro," Ghanem said. His decision was born from both the shortage and the bad traffic caused by queues at gas stations. The situation in rural areas is much worse. Fights have broken out between frustrated drivers. Some casualties have been reported, while many people have been injured. Some drivers in Alexandria and Assiut governorates have resorted to protesting against the shortages and the black market's growth, by closing off the main streets. Compounding the crisis is the fact that the fuel shortage has led to skyrocketing food prices in several governorates because of rising transportation costs. But energy officials in the government argue that the market is saturated, and that stations are being supplied with more than their usual needs. They say the problem rests in bad consumption habits and smuggling. Some experts attribute the difficulties to the government's inability to pay for import deals. According to government statistics, Egypt imports 10 per cent of its gasoline needs and about 40 per cent of diesel. Last Thursday, Minister of Petroleum Abdallah Ghorab addressed parliament on the fuel shortage issue. The minister claimed that the shortages are caused by distributors who are smuggling gasoline to the black market. Ghorab also said that 20 per cent more gasoline is now being injected into the market, in order to meet the growing demand. He also said the market was being supplied with 17 per cent more diesel. "We currently supply the market with 21 million litres of gasoline, and 47 million litres of diesel," he said. The minister blamed the black market and smuggling for the crisis, but said more serious steps are being taken to ensure that gasoline and diesel trucks reach gas stations safely. Meanwhile, Hani Dahi, head of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), said that the core of the problem lies in smuggling which is hard to control because of the lack of stiffer regulations. "We are waiting for new legislation that stiffens penalties for smuggling," Dahi said. Some gas station owners, he added, helped aggravate the crisis by reselling subsidised gasoline or diesel to black market dealers, in order to make higher profits. During the last week alone, security efforts to combat smuggling have succeeded in preventing about three million litres of subsidised gasoline and diesel from entering the black market. Moreover, Dahi claims mistrust between citizens and the government makes people rush to fill their tanks even if they are already half full. "The additional quantities we currently supply to the market should put an end to the crisis in less than two days," Dahi said Sunday, according to the Middle East News Agency. However, by the time Al-Ahram Weekly went to print three days later, long lines of different types of vehicles were still lining up for fuel.
