A video on Tuesday showed an explosion along a gas pipeline in Russia that killed three people but would not disrupt gas supplies to Europe, officials said.
The explosion ripped through the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhhorod pipeline in the Chuvashia region Tuesday afternoon local time, roughly 420 miles east of Moscow, during repair work that apparently caused a huge burst of burning gas to spew into the air, killing three repair workers and injuring a driver.
According to reports, the pipeline originates at a gas field in Siberia before crossing into Ukraine and then entering the European Union.
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A gas pipeline in central Russia exploded Tuesday, sending a giant fireball into the air and killing three people.
(PRO GOROD 21 CHUVASH TELEGRAM CHANNEL via Reuters)
The fire has reportedly been extinguished, though Chuvashia’s governor, Oleg Nikolayev, said it was unclear how long it will take to repair the section of damaged pipeline.
Russia’s state-owned energy agency Gazprom said it would not affect EU gas exports.
“The damaged section of the gas pipeline was promptly localized. Gas is being transported to consumers in full through parallel gas pipelines,” Gazprom Transgaz Nizhny Novgorod said according to Reuters.
An infographic titled “Russia struggles to make up for gap left by Europe in natural gas exports” is created in Ankara, Turkiye on Oct. 21, 2022. While Russia’s natural gas exports via pipelines have fallen by 40%, its market share in Europe has shrunk to 9%.
(Elmurod Usubaliev/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Gas exports from Russia – which supplied Europe with roughly 40% of its natural gas in the lead up to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine – have already been disrupted with the damage caused to the Nord Stream pipeline network, which saw multiple explosions earlier this year.
Western officials have accused Russia of purposefully targeting the pipeline after a preliminary investigation found that “gross sabotage” was behind the incident when traces of explosives were discovered on “foreign” objects.
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A pipeline is seen at the Russian gas compressor station in Sudzha near the Russian-Ukrainian border on Jan. 11, 2009.
(SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
The Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhhorod pipeline is the main pipeline funneling gas into Europe through Ukraine.
Gazprom reportedly said it expects to pump 43 million cubic meters of gas into Europe in the next 24 hours.
Fox News’ Haley Chi-Sing and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
