Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 9 / Trend S.Isayev/
Israel will rely on its own sources of natural gas, Head of the International Affairs Department of Israel's Ministry of Energy and Water Resources, Sagi Karni told Trend. He was commenting on a possible alternative to gas imports from Egypt.
The Egypt-Israel gas pipeline, which also supplies Jordan with oil, is the third most strategically important piece of energy infrastructure in Egypt after the Suez Canal and the Sumed Pipeline.
At the same time, it is the most important one to Israel, delivering 40 percent of Israeli natural gas supplies. Israel first started receiving gas from the pipeline in 2008.
"We have alternatives, we have backups and our own stations," Karni said. "We also have our own natural gas resources that can be used."
Karni added that a new gas field is being developed in Israel, and it will be connected to the mainframe sometime in the first half of 2013.
"The field was discovered a couple of years ago, and it can produce 240 bcm of gas," he added. "There are companies already working on that field".
Karni did not specify any other country as an alternative to Egypt.
The pipeline has come under attack at least 12 times since Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011.
Previous explosions have sometimes led to weeks-long shutdowns along the pipeline, run by Egypt's gas transport company Gasco, a subsidiary of the national gas company EGAS.
By late 2011, Egypt said it would tighten security measures along the pipeline by installing alarm devices and recruiting security patrols from Bedouin tribesmen in the area.
Israel has a 15-year contract to import gas from Egypt, worth billions, but the deal signed in 2008 has been unpopular with many Egyptians.
The Sinai Peninsula, home to Bedouins, has also been the scene of clashes between residents and security forces because tribesmen complain that they are missing out on development opportunities.