Egyptian natural gas resumes flowing to Israel after damaged pipeline is repaired

The supply of Egyptian natural gas to Israel has resumed after saboteurs blew up a pipeline carrying gas from Egypt to Israel and Jordan on Monday.

The pipeline bomb forced a shutdown in the flow of gas from the East Mediterranean Gas company to its Israeli customers.

It was the third attack on the pipeline since early February, all of them coming in the wake of the turmoil following the ousting of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and his administration. Explosions on April 27 and February 5 halted the flow of gas for weeks.

As much as 45 percent of the natural gas used by Israel comes from Egypt. Egypt’s new government in April said it would review its gas contracts with other countries, including Israel and Jordan.

The exports have long been a sensitive issue in Egypt, and the media and ordinary Egyptians had accused Mr. Mubarak’s government of selling gas to Israel at below-market prices.
Egypt is a prominent natural gas producer in the Middle East, and was the source of 62.7 billion cubic meters in 2009.

(Eman El-Shenawi, a writer at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at: [email protected].)