Gas canisters' shortage in Egypt enters second week

By Mohammed Mahmoud in Cairo
For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-02-13

[GALI TIBBON/AFP/Getty Images] Egyptian restaurants, like this one near the Red Sea, have been affected by the gas canister shortage.

At 9 p.m., Maher Najib, 34, was getting ready to leave his home in the Al-Ajouza neighbourhood to go to the Kit Kat area to buy a gas canister. He hoped to avoid the long queue that he encountered five days before when he went to buy a canister during the morning hours.

But the moment he arrived at the canister depot, he found no fewer than 300 people, who had been waiting since 5 p.m. to get their canisters.

Najib, like millions of Egyptians, is suffering from the cooking gas crisis, which entered its second consecutive week amid official promises to end the shortages in the coming days.

With a set price of five Egyptian pounds (90 cents US), the cost of a 25-kg canister in Cairo's black markets skyrocketed to 70 pounds ($12.7 US). In Egypt's coastal cities, such as Alexandria, Port Said and Ismailiya, which are famous for the large number of restaurants, one canister costs 40 Egyptian pounds.

The overcrowding at gas depots and the long waiting period, up to nine hours on some days, led to the killing of two people last Wednesday in the Embaba area in northeastern Cairo. In an attempt to end black market gas sales Egypt Attorney General Abd al-Majid Mahmoud ordered the authorities to put those involved in storing gas canisters or illegal trading on quick trial.

According to a statement on February 11th, the attorney general also asked the authorities to file charges of "collecting an officially priced commodity with the aim of selling it on the black market and exploiting citizens" against individuals involved.

The Egyptian government has given different explanations for the reason behind the crisis.

The Ministry of Social Solidarity said that a delay in the arrival of ships carrying the gas from abroad was the main reason for the shortages, as Egypt imports more than 50 % of its domestic gas demand. The Oil Ministry, according to a statement by Taha Abdel-Alim, chairman of the executive board of the general oil corporation, said that the main suspects were poultry farms and red brick factories. These businesses consume most of the reserves of subsidized gas canisters instead of using diesel and gasoline, whose prices increased in the first half of 2009.

The government, chaired by Egyptian Premier Dr Ahmad Nathif, promised after a meeting on February 9th to increase the subsidies on gas canisters from 11 to 13 billion Egyptian pounds ($2-$3 billion US). The Egyptian state budget allocates 52 billion Egyptian pounds to subsidies of hydrocarbon products, including gas canisters, whose cost, without the subsidy, would be 25 Egyptian pounds.

The oil ministry began injecting an additional 100,000 canisters on a daily basis to increase the daily number of canisters in the market to 1.2 million, distributed to 3,000 depots across Egypt.

An Al-Shorfa correspondent visited some of Cairo's neighbourhoods which have major shortages of canisters and flourishing black markets that undermine the government's efforts to end the crisis.

While standing in a long queue at the main depot in the Kit Kat area, Mostafa al-Sharif told Al-Shorfa that "Gas traders come everyday and buy at least 15 canisters at the subsidized price of five pound each before selling it for 40 pounds".

Om-Salma, a housewife, said, "Yesterday the food crime investigation department came and arrested more than 10 traders for selling gas canisters at a higher price. But there are still more of them, and the depot owners are complicit in this."

The Ministry of Social Solidarity confirmed that it will impose a fine of at least 1,000 Egyptian pounds on anyone caught selling canisters in the black market.

The residents and the local council members in the Al-Barajeel neighbourhood of Embaba monitored the area's gas depot themselves.

Ali Mahmoud, a resident in Al-Barajeel, told Al-Shorfa, "The owner of the depot is a man of conscience and does not accept injustice. He asked the local council to provide help in monitoring and supervision. He also asked the police for that. As you see, the black market does not exist in this area".

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