Gas station fire continues in Egypt

Flares of the fire that erupted in al-Timsah sea station for gas exploration off Port Saeed city, at the northern entrance of the Swiss Canal in Egypt, continued yesterday for the second running day.

Six Egyptian fire fighting teams are surrounding the station since Wednesday in order to contain the fire which was set ablaze in the largest Egyptian gas fields, while helicopters are flying in the skies of the area.

The official spokesman for the Egyptian ministry of oil, Sharif Ismael, said that the pace of the fire calmed down yesterday noting that this is a good indicator that the fire will be controlled within one or two days.

The Egyptian official indicated that there are no environmental effects as a result from the incident which he also stressed will not affect the production, generally because the production can be increased in other fields.

Egyptian oil sources said on Tuesday that the teams are in need of five days at least to control the fire and explained that the catastrophe resulted in no victims and that all employees were evacuated in due time.

The Egyptian minister of oil Sameh Fahemi inspected the place on Tuesday and announced the formation of an investigation committee to find the reasons behind the fire. Fahemi stressed on Wednesday that damages are great but gave no specific figures.

The said Egyptian gas station is supervised by Petrobill which is owned by the Italian Eini company, the British BB company, and the Egyptian general company for oil.

The Egyptian reserves of gas which has been annually increasing since more than one decade is currently exceeding 1650 billion cubic meters. This makes Egypt occupies rank 20 among gas producers in the world.