Egypt 's oil minister Osama Kamal has dismissed two key energy officials amid a fuel crisis in the North African country.

Mr. Kamal has replaced Nasr abu al-Saud, the chairman of Misr Petroleum with Saeed Mostafa, head of state-owned refiner and distributor Petrotrade, the oil ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

The minister also named Tarek El-Molla, deputy chief executive officer for foreign trade at the state oil company, Egyptian General Petroleum Corp., as the firm's deputy chief executive officer for operations, replacing Amr Mostafa.

The decision was made "on the back of the recent diesel crisis that hit the market in the last 48 hours," it said.

Mr. Kamal also issued orders to supply to military run filling stations with an additional 1 million liters of subsidized diesel, used mainly by buses and trucks, the statement added, to help alleviate shortages.

Since last year, Egypt has faced a diesel shortage that has led to long queues at fillings stations and electricity blackouts. Government and industry officials have blamed the worsening state of the country's public finances, black market trade, lower fuel production and an inefficient subsidy system for the crisis.

Continuing unrest in the country since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak has led to a risky economic mix of dwindling foreign-exchange reserves, declining tourism revenue and costly price subsidies, economists say. To prop up the Egyptian currency, the central bank has gone through nearly two-thirds of its foreign-currency reserves, pushing the country to the brink of a liquidity crisis.

Egypt is trying to secure a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, seen as the best chance to rescue it from a balance-of-payments crisis and restore its image in international investors' eyes.

As part of this, Egypt has been urged to end its fuel subsidy regime, which eats up about a fifth of the country's budget, though Egyptian politicians have been reluctant to trim the scheme, because it offers cheap food and fuel to tens of millions of impoverished Egyptians.

The oil ministry, which is working on a plan to reduce its fuel subsidies, has said it will start to ration subsidized fuel from next month.

Διαβάστε ακόμα