Energy Headlines

Emergency Situations Ministry said on May 7 that an explosion earlier the same day destroyed a 30-meter section of the Urengoi-Pomary-Uzhhorod pipeline transporting Russian gas across Ukraine to Europe, Ukrainian and international media reported. The cause of the explosion, which occurred near the village of Luka in Kyiv Oblast, has yet to be determined. The damaged pipeline is one of three main pipelines carrying Russian natural gas via Ukraine to the European market, with an estimated capacity of 1 million cubic meters per day. According to the Ukrainian Emergency Situations Ministry, supplies through the line were interrupted, but the ministry activated a bypass pipeline to continue transporting natural gas.

Officials in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Romania have reported normal gas flows following the accident in Ukraine. The European Commission called on Ukraine on May 8 to upgrade its pipelines. "A similar accident occurred in the same section of the same pipeline in 2001.... The Commission considered that additional proof that Ukrainian networks -- or at least part of the network of pipelines supplying gas to the European Union -- need to be overhauled," Reuters quoted Ferran Tarradellas Espuny, a spokesman
for Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, as saying.

Source: RFE/RL

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