The price of a single canister of butane gas in the canal city of Ismailia has hit LE15 due to reported supply shortages. City residents were seen crowding outside a local butane distribution facility, with occasional fights breaking out over limited numbers of available gas canisters.
Some residents claim that distributors are hoarding canisters with the aim of selling them on the black market at marked-up prices.
Mohsen Fouad, the official responsible for providing Ismailia with butane, attributed the shortage to reduced production capacity at a butane gas factory in Ain Sukhna. "We used to get 13,000 canisters from that factory," he said. "Now we’ll have to find another source."
Meanwhile, police discovered roughly 1000 cylinders in the possession of local brick producers, despite laws against the use of butane gas in brick production facilities.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
