Witnesses said the flames reached as high as 10 meters. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The blast targeted a pumping station at a location of about 100 km south of the Mediterranean coastal city of El-Arish in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.

El-Arish is 50 km west of Israel's border.

The officials said the attackers, armed with assault rifles, arrived in two pickup trucks without number plates and forced the three security guards on duty to leave before placing the explosives and shooting the pipeline's valves to release the gas.

The explosion triggered a blaze that took firemen at least seven hours to extinguish, they said.

Monday's blast was the third to hit the strategic pipeline since an uprising overthrew Egypt's longtime leader Hosni Mubarak in February.

No one claimed responsibility for Monday's explosion.

Disgruntled Bedouin tribesmen in the area have been blamed for attacking the pipeline in the past. Conservatives opposed to Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel have also been suspected.

Jordan, which buys 95 percent of its energy needs, imports about 240 million cubic feet of Egyptian gas a day, or 80 percent of its electricity requirements.

Jordanian officials have been in talks with their Egyptian counterparts "to determine the damage and discuss solutions," Jordan's state-run Petra news agency said.

"Jordan will face unusual problems this summer if this issue continues," Abdul Fattah Nsur, director of Jordan Central Electricity Generation Company, told Petra.

Egypt also supplies about 40 percent of Israel's natural gas, which is used to produce electricity. In December, four Israeli firms signed 20-year contracts worth up to $10 billion to import Egyptian gas.