Gas exploded during export – Newspaper Kommersant No. 237 (7438) of 12/21/2022
[ad_1]
The Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod export gas pipeline, which now carries most of Gazprom’s supplies to Europe, was damaged by an explosion in Chuvashia. The accident occurred during repair work, killing three people, another injured. According to Gazprom’s regional division, export deliveries to Europe continue in full through parallel gas pipelines. Gas prices in Europe initially began to rise on the news of the explosion, but then continued to decline.
Deliveries of Russian gas to Europe after the explosion on the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline in the territory of Chuvashia continue. “Gas is transported to consumers in full through parallel gas pipelines,” said Gazprom Transgaz Nizhny Novgorod.
The explosion occurred on December 20 at 13:50 Moscow time on the section of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod main gas pipeline during scheduled repairs. The section of the pipeline was blocked, and two hours later the flare was eliminated.
By words head of Chuvashia Oleg Nikolaev, three people died in a fire, one was injured.
The Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod transport corridor is the first export corridor built to supply gas to Europe back in Soviet times. It passes through Ukraine, from the Sudzha gas measuring station on the Russian-Ukrainian border to the Uzhhorod station on the border of Ukraine and Slovakia. As of today, this is the only route for the supply of Russian gas to Central Europe, which is why market participants pay close attention to it. In recent months, Gazprom has been supplying 41–42 million cubic meters per day via this route, of which 40 million cubic meters go to Europe, and the rest to Moldova.
After the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, the Russian Federation gradually reduced gas supplies to Europe. European customers of Gazprom and EU officials predict that at some point, supplies from the Russian Federation may stop completely.
Even taking into account the high stocks in UGS facilities in Europe, stable LNG supplies and some warming on the continent, interruptions in Russian supplies could aggravate the situation on the EU gas market.
The price of gas at the main European hub TTF after the accident was reported increased by 5% to $1.23 thousand per 1 thousand cubic meters. However, after Gazprom’s clarification that deliveries were ongoing, the price continued to decline as Europe has been warming in recent days. Since the high of early December, gas prices in Europe have already fallen by 28%.
Sergey Kondratyev of the Institute of Energy and Finance estimated that the explosion on the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline could affect Russian gas supplies via the Ukrainian route, with repairs likely to take up to several weeks.
“In 2022, due to the reduction in exports to the EU, Gazprom’s free production capacity in the Nadym-Pur-Tazovsky region increased markedly. Therefore, now the company, in principle, can replace gas supplies by loading the Progress gas pipeline,” he believes. Both the Russian and Ukrainian GTSs are built with multiple redundant flows in mind, and switching can go almost seamlessly for consumers, he adds.
[ad_2]
Source link
