Interfax: Accidents on Ukrainian gas pipelines to continue, not enough invested in maintenance

(Interfax – June 18, 2014) Accidents on Ukraine’s gas transportation system will continue because not enough is being spent on maintenance, Gazprom Deputy CEO Vitaly Markelov told journalists, commenting on yesterday’s blast and fire on the Urengoi-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline in Ukraine’s Poltava region.

“The gas transportation system, ours and Ukraine’s, was created as a unified gas supply system. We have made significant investment in reconstruction of our gas transportation system. The same cannot be said of Ukraine. A pipeline gets old, which leads to accidents. This is not the only accident that has occurred on the Ukrainian gas transportation system. I think that there will be others, because the system must be maintained in working order. Pipeline aging is inevitable.”

“The gas transportation system belongs to Ukraine. Gazprom is not taking part in investigating the incident,” he added. Gas transit is proceeding as normal, Markelov said. “Delivery of 180 million cubic meters for export is ensured. There is a parallel reserve system, which provides for uninterrupted gas transit.”

“There are no problems with transit through Ukraine right now. The volumes being shipped in [to Ukraine] are getting shipped out,” he said.

Asked about the gas used as fuel to power the transportation system, he said: “We have a gas transportation agreement. That money covers it all.”

Ukraine did not take up any Russian gas on the June 16 “gas day,” according to data from Russia’s Central Dispatching Department of the Fuel and Energy Complex. Ukraine imported 115.6 million cubic meters of Russian gas the day before, on Sunday, June 15. It imported exactly 1.7 billion cubic meters of Russian gas overall in the first 15 days of June.