In a meeting held with the Production and Energy Committee, Minister of Petroleum Ossama Kamel said that a request would be made on Friday for an additional EGP 4bn in butane subsidies to facilitate the transport of natural gas to 2m more homes. The request will be made in a meeting with the Ministers of Planning and International Cooperation and Finance. Kamel stated that the amount of money allotted from Egypt's yearly budget for petroleum subsidies would total EGP 100bn, even after the restructuring of the country's subsidy program. He added that last year, 22 new oil fields and 21 gas fields had been discovered in Egyptian territory, and that 15 bids would soon be held to auction off the rights to drill for gas off the Mediterranean coast. According to Kamal, a number of the country's diesel fuel distributors currently refuse to work with Egypt's Petroleum Ministry due to the shortage of credit available from Egyptian banks. Kamel said that he would be coordinating with the country's Agriculture Ministry to determine its diesel needs for the coming wheat harvest season. Coupons would then be distributed to agricultural organisations to enable farmers to make purchases of subsidised fuel. Measures were also being considered, he said, to grant Petroleum Ministry employees the right to seize diesel being smuggled. He further stated that there is no diesel shortage in Egypt, and the problem lies in the Ministry's ability to effectively transport and deliver fuel shipments to consumers. For this reason, the Ministry will begin using tracking and control systems along Egypt's roads in order to better combat smuggling. Mamduh Mawafi, President of the General Directorate of Supply Investigation, said that in the last three months over 925 cases related to diesel smuggling had been identified throughout the country. He added that the Ministry of Interior was currently co-operating with the Petroleum Authority to grant authorities the right to block off roads being used by smugglers to transport stolen fuel.
