Russia Ukraine war: Explosion rocks Russia's West-Siberian pipeline supplying gas to EU

At least three repair workers were killed and one was injured in yet another explosion of a Russian gas pipeline that supplied to the European markets.

The blast occurred under mysterious circumstances during the maintenance of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhhorod [or the West-Siberian] pipeline in the Chuvashia region that transported gas from the Urengoy gas field in Siberia via Ukraine to Europe.

This is the third explosion witnessed after the sabotage of Moscow's main Nord Stream pipelines in September. Russia has since been making gas deliveries via Ukrainian transit routes such as the Druzhba oil pipeline, the Soyuz gas pipeline, and the TurkSteam pipeline.

In the footage that is now circulating online, a gigantic fire can be seen erupting from the burning gas after the explosion incident. The 4,451 km-long onshore pipeline project was operated by Russia's state energy corporation Gazprom and partially by Naftogaz of Ukraine. The pipeline's operation started in 1984 and originates at a gas field in Siberia running through Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug [Russia] and via Zakarpattia Oblast [Ukraine] to Europe.

The regional governor’s office of Chuvashia issued a statement, saying that the organisation in charge of the pipeline maintenance "was working on it before the fire… The details are being investigated." It added that a section of the pipeline was impacted by a blast in the region of Chuvashia. 

“The head of Chuvashia has been informed [about the situation], he is keeping a close eye on the situation," the statement furthermore read. As of 1:50 local time, the section of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhhorod gas pipeline was shut down due to an explosion and the fire was still blazing at the site as of late Tuesday. 

Chuvashia’s governor, Oleg Nikolayev, said in televised remarks that it cannot be immediately established how long it will take to fix the section of the pipeline impacted by the explosion. The cause of the incident is also not known yet. The regional branch of Russia’s state-controlled gas giant, Gazprom, said that the volumes of gas transit will not be impacted by the explosion as supplies were rerouted along parallel lines.

West wants to 'completely pull the plug' on Russia’s gas to EU: Official 

Sergey Pikin, the director of the Energy Development Fund for Moscow, had said in an interview that the West is aiming to completely pull the plug on Russia’s gas to Europe. Since the Nord Stream sabotage and sanctions in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Europe's gas supplies have been diverted to the US [which supplies liquefied natural gas (LNG)] and Qatar, as well as the Western Balkan, and Baltic countries of Norway and Algeria. Although, it is estimated that Russia exports 42 million cubic meters of gas to Europe via Ukraine each day, or over 15 billion cubic meters a year, which only constitutes 3% of its total production.

Moscow is now diversifying the gas into Asia, mainly to its ally China via the new Power of Siberia pipeline that has been in operation from Russia’s Chayandinskoye field to China since late last year. Moscow plans to construct the second pipeline, Power of Siberia 2 to supply gas to Asia from Siberia’s Yamal peninsula, its biggest gas reserves that served European customers. The Power of Siberia 2 pipeline is expected to be operational by 2030.