CAIRO: The East Mediterranean Gas Company has yet to estimate new damages to the pipeline that carries Egyptian natural gas to Jordan and Israel after unknown assailants attacked it last night. Officials from the company said estimating losses from the latest incident – the seventh since the beginning of Egypt's January 25 Revolution – would be difficult. The sources expected last night's incident to be the last explosion to hit the pipeline, as they will have security forces perform regular checks along the pipelines. GASCO says it has secured all the stations, which was the reason the perpetrators turned to the pipelines rather than the stations. The sources said neither GASCO nor EGAS are responsible for securing or protecting the gas pipelines, adding that there are security authorities who are responsible for such duties. They added that suspending Egypt's gas supplies to Israel threatens the company with bankruptcy as the company obtained a loan from the National Bank of Egypt to establish the pipeline. Lack of gas flow means the company will not be able to meet the remaining installments, said the officials.
