CAIRO: The oil shortages in Egypt's governorates which crippled the activity of many vital sectors is retreating, as ministry of interior intensifies its effort to stop smuggling the fuel and selling it on the black market. Lots of Egypt's governorates witnessed long queues of trucks, minibuses, agricultural tractors and lorries lining up to get fuel causing heavy congestion on major roads and blocked traffic for long hours. ” Egypt has been repeatedly suffering oil shortages for the past three years around this time of year, especially after 25th Jan revolution, due to government's poor planning, and rumors, which help the crisis goes bigger” an analyst told Bikyamasr.com. “When the government has begun to watch the black market, the crisis has been solved gradually” he added. Hussin Gomma, an Egyptian business expert forecast that the problem may come back again to hit a lot of places in Egypt, if ministry of interior will not keep track of black market. He also blamed for the ministry of petroleum for this crisis, as it should make an emergency plan to overcome these obstacles, which threaten a vital part of our daily life, transportation. According to the Ministry of Petroleum, Egypt's local production of fuel covers 75 percent of the country's consumption needs, while the rest is covered through imports. “I believe this problem created by the authorities. They are still following the exact same steps of the previous regime,” Mohamed Hussin, an Egyptian citizen said. “Fuel shortage seems to be a prelude by the authorities to hike prices or an attempt to take people away from political platforms” another citizen told us. “Petroleum products provided to stations have begun increasing their gasoline supplies to 5.21 million liters per day, 22 percent higher than usual quantities,” a private source in Ministry of Petroleum told Bikyamasr.com. Lots of economic problems has hit the Egyptian economy recently, as Egypt's foreign reserves, which tumbled from around $36 billion at the end of 2010 to about 15 billion at the end of March, may lead to unsolved problems for current government. Days into an increasingly acute fuel shortage, makes the Egyptian to feel the squeeze, scuffles and knife fights have broken out among a large slices of Egyptian society these past few weeks, but as presidential elections is so near, we may end in a good results, after matters will be settled.
