Egypt gas pipeline to Israel explodes

This file picture, taken April 27, shows a previous bomb attack on the Egyptian pipeline in the northern Sinai peninsula.Flow of gas to Israel and Jordan from Egypt has been shut offThe army has cordoned off the area and asked onlookers to leaveIt is the third such attack since Mubarak's government was toppledIsrael receives approximately 40% of its natural gas from Egypt

Cairo (CNN) -- A pipeline that supplies gas from Egypt to Israel exploded Monday in the northern Sinai Peninsula near Bir el-Adb, an Egyptian security official said.

The explosion appears to be an act of sabotage, saidGen. Saleh al-Masri, the head of security in Egypt's northern Sinai Peninsula.

"Itis an act of sabotage, but the army and members of Egyptian Natural Gas Company are on the scene trying to understand what happened," al-Masri said.

The explosion has shut off the flow of gas to Israel and Jordan, said Ayman Jahin, a general manager at the gas company.

It is the third such attack on Egyptian pipeline infrastructure since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak's government earlier in the year. The first two attacks resulted in a halt in the flow of gas to Israel, which receives about 40% of its natural gas from Egypt.

The army cordoned off the area around the explosion, asking onlookers to return home," Mohamed Sabry, a freelance journalist at the scene, told CNN.

He said flames could be seen shooting into the sky hours after the explosion. Firefighters were working to contain the fire, he said.

Delivery of Egyptian gas to Israel came to a halt after an April attack on a pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula. The flow of gas through the pipeline to Israel was restored in early June.

In February, a gas pipeline in El Arish that sent natural gas to Jordan was set on fire, shutting off the flow of gas to not only Israel but but Syria, Jordan and Lebanon as well.

The issue of gas sales to Israel has become highly controversial in Egypt with various allegations circulating that Israel received below market prices for the gas and that Egyptian government officials enriched themselves on the deal.

The Israeli government and Israeli investors in the pipeline have categorically denied below market pricing for the gas and last month one of the major investors released a statement expressing public frustration that the Egyptian government was not moving more quickly to get the gas flowing again and threatened to pursue legal action.

The pipeline between Egypt and Israel became operational in 2008 and the arrangement represents one of the major economic agreements between the two countries.

CNN's Mohamed Fadel Fahmy contributed to this report.

CNN

Egypt gas pipeline to Israel hit by explosion (Reuters)

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) – Saboteurs blew up a pipeline carrying gas from Egypt to Israel and Jordan Monday, forcing a shutdown in the flow of gas, Egyptian security sources said.

The explosion took place in the early morning at a station along the pipeline in the northern Sinai Peninsula at Bir Abd, 60 km east of the Suez Canal, the sources said.

It was the third attack since early February on the pipeline, which supplies natural gas to Israel and Jordan, local cement plants and a power station.

A security source said men with machine guns in a small truck forced guards at the station to leave, then planted explosive charges.

"We do not have sufficient information until now, but in principle the explosion happened in the same way that the two previous explosions happened," another security source told Reuters.

The natural gas company that runs the pipeline closed it down after the explosion, the source said.

Witnesses said the sound of the explosion boomed out across the desert, frightening nearby residents, and tongues of fire could be seen above the station.

Previous explosions closed on April 27 and February 5 closed the pipeline for weeks.

The pipeline is run by Gasco, Egypt's gas transport company which is a subsidiary of the national gas company EGAS.

(Reporting by Yusri Mohamed, Writing by Patrick Werr; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Yahoo! News

Blast hits Egypt's gas pipeline to Israel, Jordan (AP)

EL-ARISH, Egypt – Unidentified assailants blew up the Egyptian pipeline that carries gas to Israel and Jordan early on Monday, starting a fire and disrupting the flow of the gas, security officials said.

The blast took place in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, near the Mediterranean coastal city of El-Arish, which is 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Israel's border.

The Egyptian officials had no further details and there were no immediate reports of casualties. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The blast is the third to hit the strategic pipeline since an uprising overthrew Egypt's longtime leader Hosni Mubarak in February.

No one claimed responsibility for Monday's explosion. Disgruntled Bedouin tribesmen in the area have been blamed for attacking the pipeline in the past.

Yahoo! News

U.S. oks restart of Keystone pipeline (Reuters)

WASHINGTON/CALGARY (Reuters) – TransCanada Corp can restart its Keystone oil pipeline on Sunday, after the company satisfied a series of safety conditions following leaks that idled the key export line twice in less than a month, the U.S. pipeline safety regulator said on Saturday.

The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said it approved resumption of crude flows from Canada on the pipeline after the agency evaluated the company's restart plan and was satisfied safety requirements were met.

PHMSA issued a corrective action order on Friday, demanding the company agree to a series of immediate and long-term measures following an outage last Sunday on the 591,000 barrel-a-day pipeline that runs to the oil pricing hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, from Alberta.

In that incident, 10 barrels spilled due to a faulty fitting at a Kansas pump station.

The outage raised oil prices as it limited oil shipments from Canada, the largest crude supplier to the United States. Canadian cash oil prices weakened as supplies backed up in Alberta.

In early May, Keystone was shut down for nearly a week after a 500-barrel spill at a pump station in North Dakota, which TransCanada blamed on a different piece of equipment.

In its corrective action order, PHMSA revealed a leak in South Dakota on May 25, but said it was below the threshold for reporting it.

With immediate repairs completed, PHMSA had said TransCanada must perform metallurgical testing, analysis of the failures and review other parts of the year-old system.

"Based on a review of the information submitted, the restart plan is approved," PHMSA said a letter to TransCanada on Saturday.

The earliest the company can restart the pipeline is at daylight on Sunday morning, the agency said. TransCanada officials could not immediately be reached for comment about the company's restart plan.

Concerns about safety have come as TransCanada seeks U.S. State Department approval for a controversial $7 billion expansion of the Keystone system, which would carry crude derived from Canada's oil sands as far as the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Environmental groups cited the pipeline leaks and PHMSA's order requiring a safety review as reasons the Obama administration should turn down TransCanada's request to expand the pipeline.

(Reporting by Tom Doggett; Additional reporting by Jeffrey Jones in Calgary, Editing by Peter Cooney)

Yahoo! News

Natural gas pipeline explodes in Egypt

The cause of the blast, in suburban El Arish, is not immediately clearIn February, a gas pipeline in El Arish was set on fire, officials said

(CNN) -- A pipeline that sends natural gas from Egypt to Israel and Jordan exploded early Wednesday morning, but the cause was not immediately known.

No injuries were immediately reported.

The explosion took place in a suburb of the Egyptian Sinai town of El Arish. In February, a gas pipeline in El Arish that sent natural gas to Jordan was set on fire, officials said.

The state-run MENA news agency said the February incident was a suspected terrorist attack.

It was not clear whether that incident was connected to the political unrest in Egypt.

CNN

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