Officials on Saturday said that the current shortage of the butane gas cylinders is being addressed government measures to provide the market with more butane. Battles over butane gas cylinders have claimed at least two lives, and scores have been injured in various governorates, during the shortage which has continued for one month so far. On Saturday, the state's statistics agency said that prices of gas cylinders (among other commodities) increased drastically in November. The urban consumer price index for November was 120.4 versus 119.2 in October and 110.4 in November 2010, CAPMAS said. Cairo Governor Abdel Qawy Khalifa said that the crisis would end soon, after local authorities provided the market with additional butane on Friday, the state-run MENA news agency reported him as saying. A 50-year-old man was killed in Assiut, and a 39-year-old in Aswan, when dozens of people intercepted two vans carrying cylinders. In Minya, the price hit LE55, prompting the residents to block the highway and corniche in protest. Ahmed Ghorab, the chairman of Petrogas, a state-owned LPG distribution company, said on Saturday that his company will provide the market with additional butane. He added that the army would provide security for effective distribution. Last week, Ghorab took part in a meeting with Egypt's military rulers to discuss ways of securing emergency access to butane reserves.
