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Kiev vows Austria pipeline blast won’t disrupt gas imports to Ukraine

On Tuesday, an explosion rocked Austria’s OMV gas distribution hub near Baumgarten

© AP Photo/Ronald Zak

KIEV, December 13. /TASS/. The gas hub explosion in Austria has not impaired supplies of natural gas to Ukraine, Adviser to the Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine Maxim Bilyavsky told TASS on Wednesday.

"There have been no changes regarding volumes of gas supplies from Europe to Ukraine - 32.3 mln cubic meters per day," he said.

According to the adviser, Ukrainian consumers are being fully provided with natural gas that flows from three sources: (the country’s) own production (58.1 mln cubic meters per day), gas stored in underground facilities (48.1 mln cubic meters), and imports from the European Union. Each day Ukrainian consumers are supplied with 137.2 mln cubic meters of gas.

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Senator hints at EU culpability for Austrian gas disaster by rejecting Moscow’s new routes

Meanwhile, earlier on Wednesday Bilyavsky reported that gas transit via Ukraine had dropped 23% in one day. "Transit of gas via Ukraine has dropped 23% to 200 mln cubic meters per day," he wrote on his Facebook page.

As for reverse gas supplies to Ukraine through Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, European gas imports "are being supplied according to plans," Ukrtransgaz gas pipeline operator said earlier.

On Tuesday, an explosion rocked Austria’s OMV gas distribution hub near Baumgarten an der March because of a technical malfunction, which sparked a huge blaze and completely halted gas transit supplies over this pipeline. The damaged terminal distributes gas delivered from Russia and Norway to Germany, Italy, France, Slovenia, Croatia, and Hungary. One-third of Russian gas exports to Europe run through the Baumgarten network.

Gas Connect Austria, the operator of the terminal where the explosion took place, said earlier that transit supplies to Europe had been fully restored.

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