The pipeline has been the target of attacks in the past.
A gas line between Israel and Egypt in the northern Sinai Peninsula was attacked by unidentified attackers on Sunday night, according to Al Jazeera. The attack comes only a week after an ISIS official called on militants to attack Israeli targets.
The office of Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz stated that gas was continuing to flow from Israel to Egypt and that it was working with relevant authorities to investigate the nature of the incident.
The partners that run the Leviathan gas platform off the coast of Israel (Noble Energy, Delek Drilling and Ratio) released a statement on Sunday to confirm that there had “not been any damage to the EMG pipeline connecting Israel and Egypt.” They added: “The flow of gas from Leviathan to Egypt is continuing as normal.”
Last year, Egypt paid a $500 million fine to Israel for backing out of an agreement to provide natural gas, following jihadist attacks on the pipeline in the Sinai peninsula.
Egypt’s 20-year gas deal with Israel, signed in the Mubarak era, was unpopular with the Egyptian public, and critics argued that the Jewish state was not paying enough for the gas.
Previous explosions have closed the pipeline, run by Gasco, Egypt’s gas transport company, a subsidiary of the national gas company EGAS, for weeks.
At the time that the gas supply was cut off, Egypt was supplying Israel with more than 40% of its natural gas needs to produce electricity.
The attack on the pipeline came soon after ISIS spokesman and second Caliph Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi called on all the organization’s operatives, mainly those in Sinai and Syria, to begin conquering Israeli “settlements,” referring to both West Bank settlements and Israeli cities.
Terrorists blew up the gas line in the Sinai three times during the first six months of 2011. Egypt canceled gas exports to Israel in 2012.
Israel started exporting natural gas to southern neighbor Egypt in January.
Gas will be supplied to Egypt’s Dolphinus Holdings out via the 90 km. subsea EMG Pipeline, connecting the southern Israel city of Ashkelon to the Egyptian network near El-Arish.
In December, two electrical transformers servicing a gas transfer station intended to transport gas from the Leviathan natural gas field in Israel into Jordan were torched by unidentified people in Irbid, northern Jordan. This was not the first attack against the station.
Israel has begun exporting natural gas to both Egypt and Jordan.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post