The insurance policy for the natural gas pipeline built to export Egyptian natural gas to Israel and Jordan will continue despite the cancellation of the export deal with Israel, an official with the Misr Insurance Company said Thursday.
Ahmed Shawky, a board member of the East Mediterranean Gas Company, an international consortium that purchases and re-sells the natural gas, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Misr Insurance would only cancel the insurance policy if the company operating the line, the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (GASCO), stopped paying its premiums.
Factories continue to have insurance policies even after they halt work to guarantee compensation in case of damages, he offered as a comparison.
Shawky refused to reveal the exact sum Misr Insurance paid in compensation for the 14 bombings of the pipeline since the 25 January uprising last year, but said LE2 billion was paid out in 2011.
GASCO would not likely cancel the insurance policy because gas is not a stagnant commodity and can be sold to any other country, he added.
GASCO announced Sunday that it had stopped providing gas to the East Mediterranean Company as the latter had failed to meet its financial obligations according to the contract.
