Egypt fuel consumption surges in anticipation of price hikes

The Ministry of Petroleum Egypt said today that recent reports of looming price hikes have led to a consumer rush to store petroleum products for personal or black market consumption.

In a statement the ministry said that it will continue to pump additional amounts of petrol and diesel fuel to meet the market’s growing demands. The total amount of gasoline pumped in the past few days, since the beginning of Ramadan, has reached approximately 28 million litres per day, a 25 per cent increase from the average consumption rates. Roughly 48 million litres of diesel fuel have been pumped daily, an eight per cent increase.

According to the spokesperson of the ministry of petroleum, Hamdy Abdel-Aziz, the current fuel reserves are enough for more than 10 days. He said that an oil tanker carrying 30,000 tonnes of gasoline is scheduled to arrive in Alexandria on Saturday.

Minister of Finance Hany Demian said this week that Egypt will cut energy subsidies by 44 billion Egyptian pounds ($6.2 billion) during the current fiscal year.

Egypt currently has 100.3 billion Egyptian pounds ($14 billion) allocated to energy subsidies. The government will need to raise energy prices, both for citizens and factories, in order to raise these funds.

Egypt has not yet announced when prices will increase, but officials ruled out implementing the scheme in the holy month of Ramadan.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab said yesterday that the increase would range between two and seven per cent.