AL-ARISH (Updated) - El-Sayyed Abdel Wahab Mabrouk, the governor of North Sinai said on Tuesday that the fire in Egypt's gas pipeline has been put out, adding that the situation is now under control. The blast occurred near the town of al-Arish in the north of the Sinai Peninsula. According to eyewitnesses flames were up to 10 metres (32 feet) high. Some masked people had bombed the gas pipeline for the forth time since February in an attempt to cut supplies to Israel and Jordan, the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported. "This explosion has been carried out in a way similar to the last three times, the governor was quoted by the MENA as saying. "This means that some people are trying to destabilise and harm local economy in Egypt," he elaborated, adding that the damage and loss in the pipeline are limited this time compared with the three previous bombardment. Mabrouk said that a security mechanism is to be applied to protect the pipeline and gas station in cooperation with tribes in Sinai. "Some 6-8 individuals of the tribe living in the vicinity of the pipeline are to be assigned to protect their area." According to Mohamed Auda, the station watch guard, a group of masked men carrying guns broke into the station at l.00 am. They ordered him to leave the area as they were about to bombard the place. "When I tried to prevent them, they threatened to kill me," Auda said. Jordan, which buys 95 per cent of its energy needs, imports about 240 million cubic feet (6.8 million cubic metres) of Egyptian gas a day, which accounts for 80 per cent of its electricity requirements. Egypt also supplies about 40 per cent of Israel's natural gas which is used to produce electricity. In December, four Israeli firms signed 20-year contracts worth up to $10 billion (7.4 billion euros) to import Egyptian gas.
