A gas pipeline carrying gas from Egypt to Jordan was attacked on Saturday by saboteurs forcing authorities to cut supplies on a branch of the pipeline to Israel, according to an AFP report.
According to an official who spoke to AFP, the attackers used explosives against the pipeline in the town of Lihfen in the north of Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, near the Gaza Strip. It was initially thought the pipeline to Israel was targeted, the news agency said.
“The pipeline to Jordan has been attacked and the supply to Israel has been cut off,” the official said. He added that the army had moved in to take precautionary measures to stop the fire from spreading.
Reports are mixed as to who is responsible for attacking the pipeline with some officials speculating that it was the work of “foreign elements”. A local armed Bedouin group did threaten to attack the pipeline in June last year according to security officials, AFP reported. This led to an increase in security around the pipeline.
The news agency said that relations between the Bedouin and the police have been fraught with tension with the former nomads complaining of routine harassment and discrimination.
News of the pipeline explosion comes as Egypt has been rocked by 12 days of country-wide protests against President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule. However, it is not clear whether or not the attack is connected to the protests themselves although much of Egypt’s political opposition and public opinion oppose supplying Israel with gas.
It is estimated that about 40% of Israel’s natural gas comes from Egypt, and in December, four Israeli firms signed a 20-year contract worth between US$5 and $10 billion to import Egyptian gas.
AFP quoted the Egyptian official as saying that Jordan currently imports 6.8 million cubic metres of gas a day. When used, the gas makes up 80% of Jordan’s electricity needs. The official told the news agency that he expected the gas supply to resume in three or four days.
Julien Barnes-Dacey is Middle East analyst with London based security consultancy Control Risks. Speaking a couple of days prior to the news of the pipeline explosion, he said that he did not expect the situation in Egypt to have a significant impact on the region’s oil and gas industry.
“The impact will be relatively slim, I think the direct knock-on effects of the situation in Tunisia and Egypt doesn’t have a direct linkage with oil production,” he said. “Of course you are going to get some increases in price due to a greater geopolitical instability but I don’t think there is any direct implication on production itself.”
On the wider regional implications of the unrest in the Arab world’s most populated country, Barnes-Dacey said that he did not expect similar flare-ups to happen in the major oil and gas producing countries of the Middle East due to their different financial situation.
“I don’t think you’re very likely to see many similar events in oil producing countries, I think for the most part the oil-rich countries have enough of a financial safety buffer to be able to stem the socioeconomic and political unrest which provoked the situation in Egypt and Tunisia.
“In a sense they therefore have the capabilities to be able to provide employment opportunities to boost the state financially in terms of infrastructure and jobs that appease some of those socioeconomic grievances,” he added.
