CAIRO - The truth regarding the claimed short fuel supply seems elusive amidst official assurances of a steady supply and queues of cars lined up at petrol stations. The situation on the ground speaks of a problem although its intensity differs from one district to another in the capital and from one governorate to another. While petrol station managers say that, compared with the quota they used to get, the amount has dropped by almost half in the past ten days or so, officials of the major supplier company stress that quantities pumped into the local market have increased by l0 to 25 per cent. The General Petroleum Authority has claimed that black market storage and smuggling are behind the recurrence of the phenomenon. Although petrol stations usually run out quickly of the cheap Octane 80 brand mostly used by microbuses, taxis and old cars, this week many stations had to warn motorists that they have closed down temporarily until they get additional supplies of the octane 90 and 92. It was rumoured a few days ago that there is a government inclination to raise the prices of petrol, which were said to account for the queues witnessed by some stations. Some station owners are actually convinced that suppliers are deliberately cutting down on supplies as a prelude to an intended lifting of state subsidy on fuel. Consumers have, however, noticed that profiteers have made use of the situation by filling jerry cans, which they sell at higher prices to motorists especially on cross-country roads. “Although there are strict regulations about not selling petrol in containers, some stations flout the rules,” said Hala Osman, a resident of Al-Haram Street. She usually fuels her car on her way back from work once a week. “The other day I passed by three stations in the neighbourhood, which had hung up signs that they had no fuel. But next morning the same stations were serving motorists”, she told the Egyptian Gazette. According to Hassan Azab, a taxi driver, he is sometimes compelled to fuel his vehicle with Octane 90 instead of 80 having to bear the price difference of 85 piastres per litre. “It's either I lose part of my earnings or I park the taxi until the problem is over', he told Al-Masry Al-Youm Arabic daily. The crisis is not unprecedented, having taken place several times in the past year. Mohamed Hassan, an employee at Misr Petroleum company, suggests that the shortage is in one way or another related to the kind of station. “Those affiliated to supply companies are never short of petrol supplies unlike private stations, which serve as agents to those companies whose supply is associated with the payment of their requisite fees”.
