CAIRO: An attempt to blow up the pipeline which supplies Egyptian gas to Israel and Jordan failed after the planted bombs did not explode, announced Egyptian authorities on Sunday. According to a security source, security forces imposed tight security measures around the pumping station in northern Sinai. The attempt comes less than two months after an explosion at the station disrupted supplies of natural gas to Israel and Jordan. A report by the Associated Press quoted an Egyptian security official as saying six gunmen in Sinai targeted the pipeline, overpowering the guard there and planted an explosive device which failed to detonate and was eventually defused by soldiers at the gas terminal in the village of El-Sabil, near El-Arish. The Egyptian Natural Gas Company (GASCO) has said that the gas supply to fellow Arab countries and Israel remains intact after a failed attempt to blow up a pipeline in northern Sinai. “There is no interruption to the gas supply, the flow is normal. There is no stoppage,” GASCO Chairman Magdy Tawfiq said a few hours after the attack. Recently, the Minister of Petroleum, Abdoul Allah Ghurab, said Egypt will review the price of gas sold to Israel and other countries, and that the current price has been modified and there is a possibility of increasing the prices in the contracts signed between Egypt and the countries that import the gas. The Minister also told reporters that these prices are subject to periodic review to determine the best export rates, and said there are still technical issues behind the delay in Egyptian Gas Deliveries to Israel. Egyptian opposition forces have repeatedly expressed their disapproval of the former regime's policies towards selling Egyptian gas to Israel at lower prices than the international market. Former Egyptian Minister of Interior Sameh Fahmy has been interrogated by the Egyptian prosecution since the beginning of March over allegations of squandering public funds through signing contracts with a foreign State at rates below the international market standards, in reference to Israel. In 2005, Israel and Egypt signed a 15-year natural gas export deal, where Israel would receive 1.7 billion cubic meters of gas annually. BM
