The Ministry of Petroleum officially notified the countries importing natural gas from Egypt that gas exports were suspended due to a "force majeure," in order to avoid any potential legal claim for compensation. "This procedure is inevitable to clarify the legal situation to the contracting parties," said Magdy Tawfiq, head of GASCO, the Egyptian company responsible for pumping natural gas through Sinai. Tawfiq added that Egypt officially notified the importing countries when the latest bombing first occurred. The attack targeted a natural gas pipeline in Beni al-Mazar village west of Arish, a city in North Sinai. Tawfiq told Al-Masry Al-Youm that security authorities have not yet handed over control of the bombing site to GASCO and the Ministry of Petroleum. Bomb experts are still examining the site to identify the explosive material used, send it to a laboratory and prepare a report on the incident, Tawfiq said. Tawfiq said the first task GASCO technical team would be assigned once authorities hand over the site is to determine the amount of the losses. Tawfiq expected losses resulting from the recent bombing to be less than those incurred by the previous six attacks, as it did not target a main pipeline. He also expected reconstruction work to take less time in comparison with previous incidents, which caused greater damage to the line. He added that previous repairs required importing equipment from abroad and took extensive time to implement. Egypt exports gas to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. Anonymous masked men blew up a portion of the natural gas pipeline running from Sinai to Israel and Jordan on Thursday. The attack constituted the seventh bombing on the pipeline since 25 January, when Egypt's revolution first began. Translated from the Arabic Edition
