Key Ukrainian Pipe Closed After Explosion
An explosion occurred on September 15 at the Kyiv-Western Ukraine-1 pipeline that carries gas from fields in eastern Ukraine to underground storage sites near its border with the EU, authorities have said.
The blast happened in the Kyiv region near the town of Chabany at 00:20 local time, according to Ukraine's energy ministry. No one was injured. The affected section of pipeline was shut down at 01:10 to prevent further losses of gas, and other pipelines have been used to reroute supplies to consumers, the ministry said.
"Gas supplies to consumers is organised by means of other gas pipelines," Ukraine's gas grid operator GTSOU confirmed in a statement on September 15. "This situation doesn't affect the transit of gas to EU countries."
Police are at the site investigating the incident, and repair work is expected to take two to three days to complete, according to GTSOU.
Ukraine had 26.65bn m3 of gas in storage as of September 12, or 39% more than a year earlier. Its total storage capacity is 31bn m3. The country transited some 34.8bn m3 of Russian gas to Europe in January through August, down 42% year on year.
Gazprom has seen a drastic fall in sales volumes to Europe this year, owing to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on demand and a number of other factors. The drop in consumption has also led to unusually high storage levels.