Egypt suspended natural-gas exports to Israel and Jordan for the second time this year after saboteurs blew up a monitoring room in the pipeline network that transports the fuel, the Oil Ministry said.
“Unidentified attackers bombed the station around dawn,” Hamdi Abdel Aziz, a ministry spokesman, said by telephone today in Cairo, reading out a statement citing Magdi Tawfik, chairman of Egyptian Natural Gas Co. “Exports to Israel and Jordan were halted as were supplies to the local market.”
Officials didn’t say how soon Egypt might be able to resume shipments. Abdel Wahab Mabrouk, the governor of North Sinai province where the attack occurred, said the necessary repairs “will take time,” offering no details.
Mabrouk was later cited by the state-run Middle East News Agency as saying that the repairs to the station may take two weeks. A spokesman for Jordan’s Energy Ministry said the work needed to restore gas exports to his country would take one week. Jordan has been forced by the suspension to switch to alternative fuels at a cost of 3 million dinars ($4.2 million) a day, Mahmoud al-Ees said by telephone from Amman.
Ampal-American Israel (AMPL) Corp., which owns 12.5 percent of Eastern Mediterranean Gas Co., the Israeli company importing Egyptian gas, confirmed that supplies have stopped. The company’s shares slid to the lowest level in two years, tumbling 17 percent to 4.74 shekels at the 4:30 p.m. close in Tel Aviv. Israel relies on Egypt for about 40 percent of its gas, buying the fuel under a long-term contract reached after the former enemies signed a peace treaty in 1979.
Today’s blast occurred at 3 a.m. local time at a gas- distribution facility on the outskirts of El-Arish, the provincial capital in North Sinai, Cairo-based state-run Nile News television said. Flames shot 30 meters (100 feet) into the air after residents in the district heard a loud bang, Maher Ismail, a journalist, said by telephone from El-Arish. Mabrouk, the governor, said from the city that the fire was extinguished later in the morning. Mabrouk was quoted by Mena as saying that the perpetrators were riding in a four-wheel drive after which they planted the explosives in the station, detonated them and then fled the scene.
Investigators were assessing the damage, and authorities were seeking to identify those behind the “act of sabotage,” said Abdel Aziz, the Oil Ministry spokesman. The blast occurred at a section of the pipeline network before it splits into separate branches to Jordan and Israel, said al-Ees of the Jordanian Energy Ministry.
Egypt has 78 trillion cubic feet (2.21 trillion cubic meters) of gas reserves and is the main producer of the fuel in the eastern Mediterranean region, according to the U.S. Energy Department. The country exported 650 billion cubic feet in 2009, of which 30 percent went through the El Arish-Ashkelon pipeline to Israel or via a separate link to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, according to the department.
Jordan, the only other Arab country to have a peace treaty with Israel, imports almost all of its energy supplies. Before today’s explosion, the kingdom bought about 150 million cubic meters of Egyptian gas a day as fuel for its power stations, al- Ees said. It reduced its imports by half after the first attack on the Egyptian network and had been in talks to increase them, the Jordanian spokesman said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ola Galal in Cairo at ogalal@bloomberg.net; Alaa Shahine in Dubai at asalha@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net
“Unidentified attackers bombed the station around dawn,” Hamdi Abdel Aziz, a ministry spokesman, said by telephone today in Cairo, reading out a statement citing Magdi Tawfik, chairman of Egyptian Natural Gas Co. “Exports to Israel and Jordan were halted as were supplies to the local market.”
Officials didn’t say how soon Egypt might be able to resume shipments. Abdel Wahab Mabrouk, the governor of North Sinai province where the attack occurred, said the necessary repairs “will take time,” offering no details.
Mabrouk was later cited by the state-run Middle East News Agency as saying that the repairs to the station may take two weeks. A spokesman for Jordan’s Energy Ministry said the work needed to restore gas exports to his country would take one week. Jordan has been forced by the suspension to switch to alternative fuels at a cost of 3 million dinars ($4.2 million) a day, Mahmoud al-Ees said by telephone from Amman.
Ampal-American Israel (AMPL) Corp., which owns 12.5 percent of Eastern Mediterranean Gas Co., the Israeli company importing Egyptian gas, confirmed that supplies have stopped. The company’s shares slid to the lowest level in two years, tumbling 17 percent to 4.74 shekels at the 4:30 p.m. close in Tel Aviv. Israel relies on Egypt for about 40 percent of its gas, buying the fuel under a long-term contract reached after the former enemies signed a peace treaty in 1979.
Third Attack Thwarted
The bombing is the second in three months on the pipeline system that sends gas to Israel. Gunmen attacked the link on Feb. 5 during a popular revolt in Egypt that ousted President Hosni Mubarak six days later. Authorities thwarted a separate attempt on the same network on March 27, Mena reported.Today’s blast occurred at 3 a.m. local time at a gas- distribution facility on the outskirts of El-Arish, the provincial capital in North Sinai, Cairo-based state-run Nile News television said. Flames shot 30 meters (100 feet) into the air after residents in the district heard a loud bang, Maher Ismail, a journalist, said by telephone from El-Arish. Mabrouk, the governor, said from the city that the fire was extinguished later in the morning. Mabrouk was quoted by Mena as saying that the perpetrators were riding in a four-wheel drive after which they planted the explosives in the station, detonated them and then fled the scene.
Investigators were assessing the damage, and authorities were seeking to identify those behind the “act of sabotage,” said Abdel Aziz, the Oil Ministry spokesman. The blast occurred at a section of the pipeline network before it splits into separate branches to Jordan and Israel, said al-Ees of the Jordanian Energy Ministry.
Gas Contract Probed
Egyptian prosecutors last week ordered the detention of former Oil Minister Sameh Fahmy and five ex-officials in an investigation into the country’s agreement to sell gas to Israel, signed during Mubarak’s rule. The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s biggest opposition group under Mubarak, repeatedly criticized his regime for exporting to Israel at prices that were below market rates.Egypt has 78 trillion cubic feet (2.21 trillion cubic meters) of gas reserves and is the main producer of the fuel in the eastern Mediterranean region, according to the U.S. Energy Department. The country exported 650 billion cubic feet in 2009, of which 30 percent went through the El Arish-Ashkelon pipeline to Israel or via a separate link to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, according to the department.
Peace Treaty
Some 54 percent of 1,000 Egyptians surveyed by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project want the government to annul its peace treaty with Israel, the Washington-based center said on April 25. Mubarak’s predecessor Anwar Sadat signed the accord.Jordan, the only other Arab country to have a peace treaty with Israel, imports almost all of its energy supplies. Before today’s explosion, the kingdom bought about 150 million cubic meters of Egyptian gas a day as fuel for its power stations, al- Ees said. It reduced its imports by half after the first attack on the Egyptian network and had been in talks to increase them, the Jordanian spokesman said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ola Galal in Cairo at ogalal@bloomberg.net; Alaa Shahine in Dubai at asalha@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net
