Turkmenistan: Explosion Halts Gas Exports to Russia

An explosion has rocked a gas pipeline in Turkmenistan, causing a halt in exports to Russia. The Russian energy giant Gazprom insists that the incident on the Davletbat-Daryalik pipeline will not affect supplies to Europe.

The unexplained blast, which reportedly caused a substantial fire, took place near the Turkmen-Uzbek border during the early hours of April 9, the Russian news agency Interfax reported. Repairs are expected to take three days.

The vice chairman of Gazprom, Valery Golubev, has been dispatched to Ashgabat on a fact-finding mission. He is also expected to explore the possibility of using idle pipelines to restart supplies while repairs to the damaged export route are being made.

Turkmenistan currently sells the bulk of its gas to Gazprom under a 25-year contract.