Egyptian company won’t restore gas to Israel

An Egyptian company will not resume delivering natural gas to Israel as expected, one month after its pipeline was sabotaged.

The East Mediterranean Gas consortium, which supplies 45 percent of the gas needed to produce Israel’s electricity, has missed four promised deadlines to reinstate the gas supply since the pipeline was damaged in a terrorist explosion Feb. 5. The attack was part of the uprising in Egypt that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

The Israel Electric Company has requested permission from Israel’s Environmental Protection Ministry to use diesel and fuel oil to run the power plant, Haaretz reported. The electric company has warned of possible brownouts throughout Israel due to the gas shortage and the fact that the American company Noble Energy will temporarily halt its supply of natural gas to do needed maintenance work.