WSJ: Ukraine Gas Pipeline Explosion Won't Affect Supplies to Europe

An explosion ripped through a natural-gas pipeline in central Ukraine on Tuesday, a day after Russia said it was cutting off supplies to its neighbor over a payment dispute, officials said.

Government officials said that the cause of the blast—which sent a ball of fire more than 200 yards into the air—was unclear and that Ukraine's Interior Ministry was investigating a number of possible causes, including terrorism.

Ukraine's state-run pipeline operator, Ukrtransgaz, said the fire from the explosion on a section of the pipeline in a remote area of the Poltava region was extinguished in less than two hours. Supplies to Europe won't be affected, it said, as the gas flow was temporarily shifted to a parallel pipeline.
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