CAIRO, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum said it declared force majeure on upstream natural gas deliveries following a bomb attack in Sinai Peninsula.
The official Egypt State Information Service last week said an explosion "has again" struck a pipeline in Sinai Peninsula near the town of el-Arish. The ESIS reported that the explosion destroyed part of the pipeline, halting exports to Israel and Jordan for the seventh time since the Egyptian revolution this year.
The Ministry of Petroleum said it declared force majeure, releasing it from contractual obligations because of circumstances out of its control, because of legal issues.
"This procedure is inevitable to clarify the legal situation to the contracting parties," Magdy Tawfiq, head of Egyptian Natural Gas Co., told Egyptian daily newspaper al-Masry al-Youm.
The director added that upstream losses would be less than from previous incidents because last week's attack wasn't directed at a main pipeline.
Israel gets about 20 percent of its electricity needs from natural gas supplied through Egypt. Jordan imports most of the energy it needs.
