Natural gas supplies interrupted
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal dismissed the possibility that what's going on now in Egypt could affect Israel's natural gas supplies. On Saturday, they were proven wrong. Saboteurs blew up a pipeline that runs through Egypt's Northern Sinai, state television reported on Saturday, disrupting flows to Israel and Jordan after Islamist groups called on militants to exploit the unrest that has rocked the government.Israel gets 40% of its natural gas supply from Egypt (the only well we have online right now is Yam Thetis and that will go dry in 2014).
Egyptian state television quoted an official on Saturday as saying that the "situation is very dangerous and explosions were continuing from one spot to another" along the pipeline, adding that "it is a big terrorist operation."
A security source in North Sinai said "foreign elements" targeted the branch of the pipe that supplies Jordan.
The Egyptian army closed the main source of gas supplying the pipeline and were trying to control the fires. Television footage on Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya showed a tower of flames at the scene of the blast.
Following the explosion, Israel Radio said, quoting sources in the consortium overseeing imports, that the blast did not target supplies to Israel but they had been halted as a precaution.
"We are looking into all the details but it is too soon to say how long supplies [from Egypt] will be affected," a source in the Israeli National Infrastructure Ministry told Reuters.
I'm actually surprised they attacked the Jordanian supply and not ours, although maybe they are trying to help the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan.
Labels: Egyptian gas pipeline, Egyptian regime change, natural gas
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:30 AM
5 Comments:
maybe they didn't know which pipe was which?
how soon till the offshore gas comes on stream?
Carl, the pipeline leading to Ashkelon is buried very deep and strengthened with fortified concrete. It would be very difficult to sabotage the pipeline without undertaking a major digging operation.
aparatchik is right... crash program for your OWN offshore gas supply! Drill, baby, drill!
Hi Carl.
I agree with Aparatchik probably they did not know which one they were blowing up and offshore gas seems still 2 years away.From what i read Israel can switch to alternative ways to keep their infrastructure going.
Have a great week.
Israel's discovery of offshore natural gas should make future cut off of the natural gas supply from Egypt a great deal less worrisome. That's one thing that is not going to be affected by the vicissitudes of a regime change in that country.
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