The streets of Cairo and other cities have been blocked by queues of cars, often snaking around the block, since shortages started becoming apparent on Saturday.
Many drivers have reached the pumps only to find fuel had run out, stoking tensions in a nation already reeling from months of political unrest and leaving many people frustrated that the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February last year has not yielded the economic dividend they expected.
“I have toured 15 gasoline stations looking for fuel,” said Mahmoud Rabie, a merchant who travelled from his hometown in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya, north of Cairo, to the capital searching for gasoline.
The shortages have prompted speculation that the government, which has asked the International Monetary Fund to help plug a gaping budget deficit, may be using a tactic to prepare people to pay more for fuel and rein in subsidies that weigh on state coffers. The government has said it has no such plan.
Some have speculated that it shows how dire Egypt’s finances are as its foreign currency reserves have tumbled. Egypt exports crude but also imports some refined products to meet its needs.
Oil Deputy Minister Mahmoud Nazim said on Monday the government had no intention of raising gasoline prices and said that supplies to local markets had been increased.
“Companies providing petroleum products to stations have begun increasing their gasoline supplies to 5.21 million litres per day, 33 percent higher than usual quantities,” Nazim said in an Oil Ministry statement.
But he did not explain the reason for the shortage.