Can Egypt secure its gas pipelines?

Egypt is having a hard time with security in the Sinai Peninsula, suggesting militants are likely to target a natural gas pipeline there again, an analyst said. An attack on the natural gas pipeline carrying supplies to Israel and Jordan coincided with the country's first post-revolution election for some of the seats on the Egyptian Parliament. The attack was the ninth since an uprising ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from power after more than 30 years. Alan Fraser, a Middle East expert working at British risk consultant AKE Group, told Bloomberg News that Cairo doesn't have the manpower to patrol "every inch" of the gas pipeline. "The militants obviously want to make a political point, and what better way to do it than taking attention away from the first democratic elections following the toppling of Mubarak," said Fraser. "I think it's clear this won't be the last time the pipeline is attacked." Executives at Egyptian Natural Gas Co. said militants planted three explosives along the pipeline, two of which exploded. Israel and Jordan meet a significant amount of their energy demands through Egyptian natural gas. East Mediterranean Gas, a subsidiary of Ampal-American Israel Corp., filed a suit in an international court against Egyptian energy companies because of the frequent supply disruptions.