The battle for scarce butane gas cylinders continued on Tuesday for the third month in a row with people fighting each other and blocking highways in protest against the government's inability to resolve the crisis.
In Daqahlia, knife fights broke out, wounding three after people rushed to get cylinders from a truck provided by the governorate to help solve the crisis.
Police and military forces dispersed protesters in Ismailia who said the cylinders are only found on the black market. A protest on a road in the village of Bahtini led to a traffic jam.
In Giza, owners of poultry farms said disease spread among their chickens due to a lack of cylinders to heat the farms, and warned of price increases for chicken.
The ministries of Supply and Home Trade and Petroleum said they would increase supply to reach 15,000 tons per day.
In a meeting to discuss the crisis with People’s Assembly’s Industry Committee, Petroleum Minister Abdullah Ghorab denied any shortage in production.
Ghorab said that the ministry is producing 33 million cylinders a month for domestic consumption despite normally only producing 25 million cylinders.
Ghorab assigned responsibility to the Ministry of Supply and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Interior for monitoring the final stages of distributing cylinders in the markets.
The minister accused governors, whom he did not name, of blocking the distribution of natural gas to some areas in their governorates via pipelines.
Regarding exporting gas to Israel, Ghorab, said the ministry cannot stop Egyptian gas exports to Israel and required new legislation by Parliament. This came in response to a demand Tuesday by the People's Assembly's Industry Committee to stop gas exports to Israel.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
