It's good that it's in May

The explosion of the main gas pipeline did not affect gas supplies to Europe

Yesterday, on the territory of Ukraine, after an explosion, one of the gas pipelines through which Russian gas flows to Europe failed. As Interfax reports with reference to the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ukraine, the accident occurred near the village of Luka, Tarashchansky district, Kyiv region. Despite the fact that Gazprom exports approximately 20% of its total supplies abroad through this pipe, the Russian concern promised to fulfill all contractual obligations to customers.

“There have been no restrictions on gas supplies to European consumers,” the concern’s press service said in a statement. And Naftogaz of Ukraine, which owns this gas pipeline, reported that “automation redirected flows along other routes.” As Vremya Novostei's interlocutor at the Ukrainian company explained, the gas supply system has already switched to summer operation and has significant capacity reserves. “We have no doubt that all the volumes declared by consumers will be released from the gas transportation system of Ukraine,” he says. The causes of the accident are being investigated.

The national gas companies of Slovakia (SPP), the Czech Republic (RWE Transgas) and Poland (PGNiG) told Intefax that they had not experienced any changes in gas supplies due to the accident in Ukraine.

The length of the main gas pipeline Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod across the territory of Ukraine is 1,160 km, its design capacity is 27.9 billion cubic meters. m per year. There are nine compressor stations along the gas pipeline route. There is no word on the cause of the explosion or the possible time frame for restoring the gas supply. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the explosion led to the destruction of 30 meters of a gas pipeline with a diameter of 1400 mm. The fire that resulted from the accident was extinguished within a few hours.

The consequences of such an accident, if it had occurred at the height of the autumn-winter peak, when the gas transportation system was working at its limit, are difficult to describe. Gazprom would have practically no ability to quickly compensate for the loss of 80 million cubic meters of gas on a daily basis (at the exit from the Ukrainian system). Now the emergency that has occurred makes it possible to maintain the level of supplies and think about investing in the reconstruction of the system (if the cause, of course, was not a terrorist attack, but the physical wear and tear of Soviet pipes). Moreover, the recently announced investment program of Naftogaz provides not so much for the replacement of pipes as for the modernization of compressor stations - simply so that they consume less expensive gas, reducing the company’s costs.

Alexey GRIVACHS