Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — A leading Russian energy contractor has decided to suspend operations in Egypt.

Russia’s Novatek has decided to end operations in Egypt after four years of drilling and other activities. Novatek is said to have cited the rising unrest against the Islamist regime of President Mohammed Morsi.

“This is just another missed investment opportunity for Egypt,” Anatoly Chomachka, a diplomat at the Russian embassy in Cairo, said.

Chomachka told Aswat Misriya that Novatek was forced to halt drilling in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula amid suspected Al Qaida-aligned attacks.

The company had planned to pump $40 million worth of energy from its field in El Arish by 2012.

  Al Qaida-aligned atttacks, El Arish, Mohammed Morsi, Novatek, Russian energy major pulls out of Egypt citing terror threats