Heater Gas Scarcity Provoke Anger of Citizens Amid Freezing Weather

A state of alert has been declared in the Butane Gas Refill Station in Beraki, in the southern outskirts of the capital Algiers, as hundred people, hailing from different regions of the country, rushed into the spot to get a butane gas bottle, amid scarcity which pushed prices to soar by 400 percent.

Lakhdar Rezaoui of Echorouk has noticed a long queue of hundred butane gas seekers, of different ages; some of them carried the empty butane gas bottles on shoulders, others on the wheel-barrows, while others came on their cars which bear registrations of different provinces, including Algiers, Medea, Boumerdes, Tizi Ouzou, and Tipaza, which have all been hit by sever snowfall these days.

National Gendarmerie officials were convened to assure the organisation of the distribution operation. A worker at the gas refill station said the presence of Gendarmerie officials is a must, as it aims at assuring security in the spot, following some altercations and fights that erupted among the gas seekers.

“Scarcity in one of world’s largest gas producers!”

A youngster, who was waiting his turn to get two gas bottles filled, said he came from Boumerdes, some 80 km eastern Algiers. But a friend of his, was near him burst into anger saying: “Look at us, we are freezing here; we are forced to make this long queue to get a gas bottle in a hydrocarbon dependent nation,” adding: “It seems the Algerian gas is not destined for us; it’s rather carried to warm up households in Italy, Spain and France…we are hardly managing to cook food or heat up… the irony is that this is occurring in one of world’s largest gas producers supposed to assure local need before resorting to exporting!” 

Meanwhile, Mohamed, a middle-aged man hailing from Medea, said in the locality where he live prices of butane gas soared by 400 percent to hit 1000 ADZ, due to an increase in demand and lack of supply since the beginning of the freezing wave hitting the North African nation, since early February.

The angry citizens have urged authorities to react as soon as possible, by increasing butane gas bottles output, as to help them surviving this freezing weather.