The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (MoPMR) confirmed that the cooling operations are currently being completed by the work teams of the petroleum geographic area in Mostorod for the part of the Mostorod-Huckstep butane pipeline that caught fire on January 7^th in the Khanka city area. The teams are also completely purifying the pipeline of the product so that the repair process can begin.

The cooling and purification operations of the damaged part of the pipeline were scheduled to be completed within 6-8 hours, after which specialized work teams have started the process of repairing the damage and restoring the line and preparing it for operation again.

Prior to the announcement, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Karim Badawi, visited the site of the accident. Badawi was reassured about the emergency measures taken by the petroleum geographical area in Mostorod to deal with the situation and isolate the pipeline after bringing in special means for this, represented by the nitrogen car from Petrojet.

The minister directed the work teams to be ready to repair the pipeline as soon as it is cooled down as a result of the fire.

Badawi was also reassured the speed of implementing alternative plans to provide supplies of butane gas through successful maneuvers that were carried out to push the product to the distribution areas via the national butane gas transmission network lines, which have multiple alternatives for transmission lines.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) confirmed the stability of the delivery of butane gas to the distribution and consumption areas and the absence of any complaints in this regard.

This comes as the 12-inch diameter butane gas transmission pipeline (Mostorod-Haikstep) belonging to the Petroleum Pipelines Company (PPC) was damaged as a result of being hit by loaders belonging to the residents while they were working at night without prior permits. This resulted in the pipeline catching fire in this part, noting that the line that was exposed to the loader collision and breakage is a pipeline that transmits the butane product, not natural gas.

The Ministry explained that emergency measures were taken immediately to deal with the situation.