[babystrangeloop]

Another blast hits Egypt-Israel pipeline
PressTV / July 30, 2011

An Egyptian pipeline carrying natural gas to Israel in the Sinai Peninsula has been hit by yet another attack, causing severe damages and halting the gas flow.


Unknown gunmen have exploded the cooling lines at the gas station in Sheikh Zuwayid region north of Sinai.

Witnesses say they have heard heavy gunfire at the station. ...

[babystrangeloop]

Some follow up.

Electric rates to rise by 'only' 10%
Finance Minister Steinitz signs temporary provision reducing taxation on diesel oil sold to Israel Electric Corp. in order to minimize price hike following disruptions in gas supply from Egypt
Tani Goldstein / Ynet News / August 7, 2011

Electric rates will rise by only 10% on Monday, instead of 20%, after Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz signed a temporary provision reducing the taxation on diesel oil, which is used to produce electricity.

Following the disruptions in the supply of natural gas from Egypt to Israel, which began in February 2011, Israel has been forced to use diesel fuel for electricity production.

The use of diesel oil is significantly more expensive than the use of natural gas, increasing the cost of electricity production as well as electric rates.

In order to ease the price hike, Steinitz decided to reduce the excise and sales taxes imposed on diesel fuel by 69%. The temporary provision will apply retroactively to the entire period in which the gas supply from Egypt was disrupted – from February 1 to December 31, 2011.

According to Steinitz, "Although the rise in fuel prices all over the world and the attacks on the Egyptian gas pipeline require a temporary increase in electric rates, I decided to ensure that the temporary price would not exceed its original level at the start of 2010." ...

Israel approves higher electricity tariffs despite protests
Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch and Steven Scheer; Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; editing by Stephen Nisbet / Reuters / August 8, 2011

... Led by sharply rising prices of housing, fuel and food, Israeli inflation reached an annual rate of 4.2 percent in June -- well above a government target of 1 to 3 percent. That has led to a series of 10 interest rate increases since August 2009. Inflation is projected to ease to a rate of 2.9 percent by the third quarter of 2012.

A quarter of a million people marched in Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial capital, on Saturday, under the banner of "social justice" in an escalating campaign by the country's middle class for price cuts. ...

They would have been better off marching along the pipeline in an effort to ward off sabotage.

[babystrangeloop]

Another round of follow up:

Egypt report: Talks on gas supply halted
Roee Nahmias / Ynet News / August 21, 2011

... While the revolution attempts in Egypt continued in February, terrorists blew up one of the gas terminal in Sinai. Since then, the pipeline's route has been sabotaged four times, bringing the gas supply to Israel to a halt.

The last explosion took place about three weeks ago, and over the weekend Egyptian website al-Youm al-Sabaa reported that the attempts to repair the Sinai gas pipeline continue.

Hamas-run Gaza now threatens Israeli-Egyptian peace
EVELYN GORDON / Jerusalem Post / August 22, 2011

... Over the last six months, for instance, five separate attacks on the Egyptian-Israeli natural gas pipeline have kept it almost permanently shut, thereby depriving Israel of gas and Egypt of badly needed foreign currency. This compares to zero successful attacks in the three years between the pipeline’s 2008 opening and the start of Egypt’s revolution in January 2011. Even worse, Thursday’s cross-border attack took place in broad daylight, right in front of an Egyptian army outpost, without the soldiers lifting a finger to stop it. The Egyptian border policemen on patrol whom Israeli troops allegedly killed in their effort to repulse the terrorists were also clearly at the scene; otherwise, they wouldn’t have been in the line of fire. Yet they, too, did nothing to stop it from happening. ...

[babystrangeloop]

Jordan, Egypt to sign natural gas deal
By Omar Obeidat / The Associated Press / August 29, 2011

AMMAN - Jordan will sign an agreement with Egypt next month to resume natural gas supplies, the Associated Press reported, quoting Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Khaled Toukan.

Toukan said several attacks this year on Egypt’s pipeline delivering the fuel may prompt the Kingdom to look for alternatives, but Jordan will now try to use Egyptian gas to meet its energy needs.

The minister said Sunday the agreement stipulates higher costs, but declined to say how much, according to AP.

Under a previous deal, Amman received natural gas at less than half of the market price.

Supplies of Egyptian natural gas to the Kingdom have been disrupted several times this year due to five explosions that sabotaged the Arab Gas Pipeline, which provides Egyptian gas to Jordan and Israel.

The disruptions have forced the Kingdom’s power plants to use their heavy oil and diesel reserves, costing Jordan some $3 million per day.

The unreliability of Egyptian gas has forced Jordanian authorities to look for alternative energy sources including liquefied gas and increased heavy oil imports from Iraq.

Plans are in place to construct an offshore terminal for liquefied gas at the Port of Aqaba by 2013. ...

... Early June, Jordan and Iraq reached an agreement to increase the volume of petroleum imported to Jordan from Iraq to 15,000 barrels a day in lieu of 10,000 barrels, under preferential prices. ...

... The premier said then that Iraq would also provide Jordan with 30,000 tonnes of heavy fuel ["diesel"] per month at discount prices. ...

[babystrangeloop]

This pipeline saga is in the news over and over but based on the actual coverage and understanding it might as well be a sci-fi novel written on another planet and never exported.

Must not be very important, huh?

[dolanbaker]

Must not be very important, huh?

It's because it connects two countries, neither of which are American!

[babystrangeloop]

Must not be very important, huh?

It's because it connects two countries, neither of which are American!

Actually it connects more since Jordan used to use the pipeline too and Syria by way of transit gas and the Gaza strip by way of transit gas from Israel.

Do you think it is on TV in the middle east?

[babystrangeloop]

Pipeline Blast Hits Egyptian Gas Supply To Israel, Jordan
RTT / September 27, 2011

(RTTNews) - Egyptian gas supply to Israel and Jordan was disrupted following a blast on the pipeline, suspected to be an act of sabotage, in the village of Al Meedan close to Al Arish in Egypt's northern Sinai Peninsula early on Tuesday, reports quoting witnesses said.

Fire trucks and ambulances rushed to the scene as flames and columns of smoke rose from the site. No casualties were immediately reported.

It was the sixth time that an explosion hitting the pipeline since a popular uprising forced former President Hosni Mubarak to step down in February. ...

Some things never change.

Blast destroys Egypt gas pipeline to Israel for sixth time
Local hospital says one man admitted with burns from blast, which also set olive groves and shacks on fire; fire brigades getting flames under control after company operating pipeline cut off gas supply.
Reuters / September 27, 2011

Unknown assailants blew up an Egyptian pipeline in Sinai that supplies Israel and Jordan with gas, security sources and witnesses said on Tuesday.

A witness told investigators he saw three men jump out of a small truck at a pumping station in an area known as al-Maidan, southwest of the city of el-Arish, and open fire on the pipeline, the security sources said.

This was followed by a large explosion heard across the city and witnesses said 15-meter high flames could be seen shooting up from the pipeline.

A local hospital said one man was admitted with burns from the blast, which also set olive groves and shacks in the area on fire. Fire brigades were getting the flames under control after the company operating the pipeline cut off the gas supply.

The pipeline has been blown up by assailants believed to be opposed to selling Egyptian gas to Israel six times since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February

The last attack occurred in July when men with machine guns in a small truck forced guards at a station out and blew it up. ...

Oh, did I mention it was blown up again and it was all gnarly and oh yeah this was the sixth time?

Egypt gas pipeline to Jordan, Israel sabotaged for sixth time
By Reem Abdellatif / Daily News Egypt / September 27, 2011

... Last month, Egypt’s army and police officials pointed out that they were cracking down on terror attacks in the area. ...

This month it shows they can't do the job.

[babystrangeloop]

Egypt to substantially raise price of gas to Israel: report
AFP / October 4, 2011

... Egypt supplies 43 percent of Israel's natural gas, which generates 40 percent of Israel's electricity.

An Israeli official said last week, after militants attacked the gas pipeline for the sixth time this year, that Israel has not received gas through the pipeline since an attack in July. ...

Some math: 43% of 40% is 17.2%

No gas since July? How is Israel coping with the fuel for 17.2% of their electricity missing?

Israel spends extra $2.67 million daily due to Egypt gas stoppage
Ahmed Feteha / Ahram Online / October 3, 2011

Attacks on the Egyptian pipeline delivering natural gas to Israel cost the Jewish state an average of 10 million shekels (US$2.67 million) a day over the summer months, Israel's Ministry of National Infrastructure (MNI) said this week, according to Israel’s Globes business daily.

The disruption to Israel’s main gas supply forced the country to produce its electricity with a diesel alternative. During the months of July and August, the burning of an extra 142,000 tonnes of diesel compared to the same period in 2010, cost Israel an additional $159.91 million.

Diesel is significantly more expensive than natural gas, at around $33.32 per million British Thermal Units (BTU), compared with $5.33 per million BTU for natural gas. Heightened production costs brought a 10 per cent hike in electricity bills for Israeli citizens. ...

EMG seeks compensation for Egypt gas disruptions
Reuters / October 9, 2011

Oct 9 (Reuters) - East Mediterranean Gas (EMG) has filed a request for international arbitration in the wake of a series of gas disruptions from Egypt, an EMG stakeholder said on Sunday.

... In July, an EMG board member told Reuters that shareholders in the company were seeking $8 billion in damages to EMG and its clients from contract violations in gas supplies. ...

... The gas disruptions have already caused financial harm to state-owned Israel Electric Corp, which has had to switch to more expensive fuel to generate electricity.

[babystrangeloop]

Israeli Electric Corp. To Seek Government Aid
Dow Jones Newswires via WSJ / October 5, 2011

JERUSALEM (Dow Jones)--Israel's electric company turned to the government Wednesday for help closing a funding gap of about 500 million shekel, or $134 million, and also said it plans to issue more bonds.

The government-owned Israeli Electric Corp. Ltd. blamed its cash flow problems on lower-than-expected demand during the summer and the need to buy diesel amid diminished supplies of natural gas. ... after attacks on a gas pipeline in Egypt interrupted supply to Israel.

Israel Electric Corp to ask gov't for NIS 500m
The utility also plans a bond issue as it buys more diesel to make up for the rapidly dwindling Yam Tethys gas reservoir.
Globes / October 5, 2011

Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22) will ask the government for a NIS 500 million budget supplement because of its cash-flow problems. The utility will have to increase its purchases of diesel to make up for the faster than planned depletion of Yam Tethys's natural gas reservoir. ...

... IEC says that gas production at Yam Tethys is down by more than 25%, and is expected to continue to decline. ...

Yam Tethys gas reservoir is depleting faster because consumption of it used to be offset by gas from Egypt. Now with the pipeline out of operation Yam Tethys is being consumed faster.

Electric Corp eyes fuels purchase
Lior Gutman, Calcalist / Yedioth Internet / October 5, 2011

... The recent explosion of the Egyptian gas line led the IEC to believe that these events “affirm our concerns that Egyptian gas (flow) will not be coming back online in the foreseeable future," therefore the corporation announced that it was preparing for a financing round meant to cover its losses, while seeking at the same time turning to the government for assistance. ...

The pipeline has been blown up forever. Is this geopolitical or "geoanarchy"? Just because no one has taken claim for the action doesn't imply it wasn't organized.

Electricity rates may rise a further 2.5%
Despite a recent 9% hike, the IEC is still not covering the cash flow shortfall caused by the suspension of Egyptian gas supplies.
Amiram Barkat / Globes / October 6, 2011

Electricity rates may be set to rise for the second time this year due to the cash flow problems of the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22), which requires NIS 500 million.

... IEC believes that the government and the Public Utilities Authority (Electricity) will assist it in finding a solution to its cash strapped situation, by again raising electricity rates to consumers - this time by 2.5%.

The Public Utilities Authority (Electricity), the government body that regulates the IEC, already raised electricity prices to household consumers by 9% two months ago, due to the disruptions in the supply of natural gas from Egypt. ...

... In its announcement yesterday, the IEC confirmed a report by "Globes" that in recent weeks there has been a 25% fall in production of natural gas in the Mary B well in the offshore Yam Tethys gas field - the only Israeli gas field currently supplying electricity to the country's power stations. Since the flow of gas from Egypt was halted earlier this year, the Mary B has been the only source of gas to Israel's power stations and electricity grid.

The drop in supply of natural gas has compelled the IEC to raise purchases of diesel, which is more expensive. Moreover, the drop of production from the Mary B well will now cost the IEC an extra NIS 100 million. ...

... The Mary B well is rapidly being depleted and production is expected to significantly fall in the second half of 2012. The small nearby Noa field, which is being developed, will come on stream in the middle of 2012, and will partly compensate the gas shortfall. Another solution will enable the import of liquid natural gas in container ships that will connect up to a buoy offshore from Hadera. This will probably begin operations towards the end of 2012. A complete solution to the situation will be available from the middle of 2013 when gas begins flowing from the Tamar field.

Also Jordan is affected by the pipeline sabotage.

FEATURE-Arab Spring exposes Jordan's economic policy rifts
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi / Reuters / October 12, 2011

... Another blow to state finances is a record energy bill that is expected to top $4.5 billion after the disruption of Egyptian gas supplies to Jordan due to sabotage of the pipeline in the Sinai region. This prompted the kingdom to switch to more expensive diesel fuel to generate electricity. ...

[babystrangeloop]

Israel confirms halt in Egyptian gas supplies after pipeline blast
Platts / November 10, 2011

Natural gas shipments to Israel from Egypt were halted on Thursday following an explosion that blew up the pipeline used to transport gas from Egypt to Israel and Jordan, according to Israeli energy industry sources.

The sources confirmed Thursday that the flow of gas was halted early in the morning following the blast -- the seventh this year -- that has cut off deliveries.

[prior to this] Deliveries to Israel and Jordan resumed on October 21 following a 100-day interruption.

The volume of gas to Israeli customers in the past two weeks had reached about 70% of contractual levels and enabled the East Mediterranean Gas Supply Company, or EMG, to supply gas to all of its Israeli customers.

Meanwhile, the sole Israeli producer Yam Thetis has had to cut back supplies due to a faster than expected depletion of its Mary B well off Israel's southern Mediterranean coast.

Israel's largest gas consumer, the Israel Electric Corp., has sharply increased the use of gasoil [diesel] to offset the decline in gas supplies. ...

This is another thing driving up the price of diesel this autumn.

[eXpat]

And again...
Egyptian gas pipeline blown up by saboteurs

Saboteurs blew up Egypt's gas pipeline to Jordan and Israel today, witnesses and security sources said, a few hours before the country holds its first free election since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled in February.

The explosion was set off west of al-Arish in Sinai, witnesses said. State news agency MENA said the explosion was in al-Sabeel area.

Security forces and fire trucks raced to the scene.

The pipeline, which supplies gas to Jordan and Israel, was last attacked on November 25.

It is the eighth such attack since Mubarak stepped down on February 11, although the pipeline was first attacked a few days earlier.

Egypt's 20-year gas deal with Israel, signed in the Mubarak era, is unpopular with the Egyptian public, with critics arguing that the Jewish state does not pay enough for the gas

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/egyptian-gas-pipeline-blown-up-saboteurs-4574944

[bratticus]

Blast hits Egypt's gas pipeline to Israel
Reporting by Yusri Mohamed, Sherine El Madany and Ahmed Tolba; Writing by Sherine El Madany / Reuters / February 5, 2012

Pipeline attacked 12 times since Mubarak ousted

The state-owned operating company, Gasco, said the fire was brought under control by dawn but the flow remained cut, including exports, the state news agency reported.

Electric Corp scrambling to buy turbines to avert blackouts
Avi Bar-Eli and Itai Trilnick / Haaretz / February 16, 2012

There is a real danger of power blackouts this summer, Energy and Water Resources Minister Uzi Landau warned yesterday at a press conference, as his ministry launched a controversial project to tackle the anticipated electricity shortages that includes buying new turbines. ...

... The ministry will be orderingthe Israel Electric Corporation, which has a monopoly over power generation in Israel, to buy eight mobile, 25-megawatt generators at $25 million apiece, for a total cost of $200 million. They will provide backup and emergency power.

... The proposed emergency generators are diesel-fueled and can be hauled by track to the areas affected by planned blackouts. ...

... The main reason for the shortage of natural gas to run the generating plants is the repeated breakdowns in Egyptian gas supplies. ...

[Serial_Worrier]

My god, Arab countries are such unreliable shitholes.

[dolanbaker]

My god, Arab countries are such unreliable shitholes.

wow, that is one of the most sweeping statements I've ever seen here!
Shitholes! well, you're looking at the future of most first world countries.

[threadbare]

I'm not surprised at the sabotage. There isn't a person alive, who wouldn't wish to do the same thing, if they were living under Israel's aggression in the Middle East. I thank God every day that I don't live in a country that can be bombed at will by Israel or the U.S.,the new bullies on the block; rogue nations, psychopathic social entities.

[Cid_Yama]

Just watched his inauguration speech. He refered to the Military and the Courts as 'institutions', then probably 30-40 times used that term in saying the institutions are the Nations strength, the institutions shall be preserved, the power of the institutions shall be preserved, the institutions are GOD and the Nation any the only hope of the people, and the institutions goals are the goals of the people and their power shall never be challenged ... blah blah blah

In other words, "They have my balls in a vise and I have zero, zilch, nada power.

Clearly he has submitted. The Muslim Brotherhood has gained nothing. Egypt will continue to be run by the military council with a thin veneer of pretend democracy.

The Egyptian military is a bought and paid for extension of US power, so the US gets everything they hoped for.

[vtsnowedin]

Well post Camp David the US has dumped a lot of money into Egypt including a lot to the military but other then avoiding a war or two between Egypt and Isreal I don't see where the US has got much for the money. Certainly not a controlling interest in the Egyptian army. But what of it one way or the other. The question is what do the Egyptians need to do now to survive, much less prosper. Give complete dictatorial control to Morsi or the General of your choice and a nice fat checking account from the UN or the USA or Europe/ Russia. Then what? They still have too many mouths to feed and no oil to sell and a tourist industry that is shot.

[Whitefang]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1eu7F7m0nI

Carefully planned powergrab, create problem, then offer solution.
Always works........

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/polit ... d-worry-us

Second, the most powerful man in Egypt is not President-Elect Morsi but Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf), which, in effect, has ruled Egypt since Mubarak left office on 11 February 2011.

It is the military that dominates modern Egyptian politics. All four presidents since a group of officers overthrew the monarchy in 1952 have come from the military. The country’s armed forces – the world’s tenth-biggest – are believed to control between 30 and 40 per cent of the Egyptian economy. And in June Scaf dissolved the elected parliament and claimed legislative power for itself. Egypt, in the words of one commentator, is a military with a state rather than a state with a military.
Making waives

Shamefully, the United States has spent the past three decades propping up Egypt’s generals. Since the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, the US has lavished $35bn in aid on the Egyptian military, making it the largest recipient of US military and economic aid after Israel.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/ ... 20ghr.html

http://www.economist.com/node/21557339