An explosion blew through a pipeline bringing gas from Russia to Europe, killing three people and disrupting gas flows, Russian media reported.
The blast in the Urengoi-Pomary-Uzhhorod pipeline — which enters Ukraine via the cross-border metering point Sudzha — was announced by local authorities in the small central Russian village of Kalinino at 11:44 a.m.
The resulting gas flare has since been extinguished, according to local officials, and gas flows through a section of the pipeline have been halted.
Roughly 43 million cubic meters of natural gas had been flowing to Europe via Sudzha — the only point at which gas is still transiting from Russia to Ukraine — on a daily basis. The pipeline became the main artery for Moscow’s gas to enter Europe following the explosions that damaged the Nord Stream pipeline in September; Western officials said the blasts were the result of sabotage.
Russia’s Gazprom said it would continue to provide natural gas to affected consumers through parallel pipelines.
Russian authorities said they are opening a case to investigate any potential “violation of industrial safety requirements” at the site of the blast, where they said repair work was being carried out at the time of the explosion. One person was also injured in the blast.
Day-ahead futures on Europe’s gas trading benchmark, the Dutch TTF, rose to €114 per megawatt-hour at midday following news of the explosion — €11 higher than the previous hour.
