The blast, which occurred at 12.15 p.m. GMT, damaged a 30-meter stretch of the Urengoi-Uzhgorod natural gas trunk pipeline and was followed by a fire, which was put out later by Ukrainian fire fighters. No one was reported injured in the incident. „Gazprom is fully complying with its obligations on supplies of natural gas to European consumers via Ukraine,” the press service said. „There are no restrictions to gas deliveries to European consumers.”
Ukraine’s national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy also said in its statement that the incident will not affect the deliveries of Russian natural gas to Europe. „Ukraine is fully complying with its obligations on natural gas transit to European consumers by increasing volumes of gas supplies via other pipelines and by gas intake from underground storage facilities,” the statement said. Ukrtransgaz, a subsidiary company of the Naftogaz Ukrainy, set up a special commission to investigate the cause of the accident. Naftogaz Ukrainy’s press service said that „Supplies along the gas pipeline… will soon be resumed, but more specific information will be available after a special commission working at the accident site reports its conclusions.”
The blast and ensuing fire that hit the pipeline Monday evening raised speculation that it could have been a terrorist attack aimed at disrupting the situation in the country, which is already locked in a political crisis. „This was no terrorist attack … but negligence by some officials,” Svyatoslav Piskun said following a conference on the issue in Kiev, adding that the preliminary investigation had cited loss of pressure in the pipeline and sinking ground as the technical reasons. (rian.ru)
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