Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum-affiliated Petroleum Gas company (Petrogas) plans to fill 3.9 million tonnes of butane gas into some 312 million cylinders within financial year 2018/2019 to meet domestic needs, the company's head Adel al-Shuwaikh said in a statement on Wednesday. He added that his company's planned investment will target developing production assets and increase its efficiency through a number of projects. Petroleum Minister Tarek el-Molla said that Egypt saw a stable market of petroleum products, especially butane gas cylinders, which reflects the ministry's successful efforts to expand storage areas for butane gas, according to the statement. Molla said the petroleum sector is pressing ahead with a host of measures to increase the strategic reserves of butane gas through new projects, such as building new storage tanks and adding new production units to the existing refineries to increase production. This comes in tandem with expanding household connections to the natural gas grid in order to rationalize the consumption of butane gas and ease the burdens of the state budget, Molla added. The price of butane cylinders rose 100 percent after the government hiked fuel prices last year, currently costing LE 30, compared to 15 pounds before the rise. Despite the price increase, the government still pays a subsidy of 115 pounds per butane cylinder. Source: Egypt today
