The explosion of a gas pipeline near Kiev dispelled the myth about the transit reliability of Ukraine
An explosion occurred on one of the high-pressure gas pipelines near Kiev, which once again raises the question of the reliability of the Ukrainian gas transportation system.
Deputy Director General of the Institute of National Energy Alexander Frolov writes about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, in an author’s column published by Izvestia.
“In Ukraine there was an explosion on one of the high-pressure gas pipelines. At the moment, a plug has been placed on the pipe, but nothing threatens the transit of Russian gas. However, this incident is an extremely timely reminder of the underfunding of the Ukrainian gas transportation system (GTS) and its ambiguous technical condition.
Depressurization of a high-pressure gas pipeline occurred at night in the village of Chabany near Kiev. Fortunately, according to available information, none of the residents of nearby settlements were injured,” writes Frolov.
The Ukrainian side clarified that the pipeline through which gas from Ukrainian fields in the east of the country is supplied to storage facilities in the west was damaged.
“It is noteworthy that this is not the first accident at KZU-1 in recent years. And Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod, which was initially discussed in the media, is not in the best condition. Six years ago there was an explosion on it in the Poltava region, and a number of sections were previously recognized as emergency,” the expert points out.
He points out that timely and required repairs of the Ukrainian gas transportation system were carried out only under the USSR, and all the years of independence the “pipe” was chronically underfunded.
“The events of recent weeks have again given rise to an unconstructive discussion in the European Union about the need to freeze Nord Stream 2.” But a high-profile accident at the Ukrainian gas transmission system should remind the hottest heads of why bypass gas pipelines are created. So that the European buyer receives their gas without thinking about whether the decrepit gas transportation system of Ukraine will be able to pump the required volume or not.
Fortunately, next year Gazprom will have the right to reduce supplies through the Ukrainian corridor to a record low of 40 billion cubic meters. m per year. Such a low load will slightly extend the life of the Ukrainian “pipe”. But it won’t last too long without multibillion-dollar investments,” Florov concluded.
As PolitNavigator reported, experts it is not excluded that the Ukrainian gas transportation system will be undermined, as it happened with power lines on the border with Crimea.
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