MOSCOW, June 18. /ITAR-TASS/. Interruptions in Russian gas transit to Europe are possible after the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline explosion in Ukraine on Tuesday, Jozsef Molnar, chief executive of Hungary’s major oil and gas company, MOL, told ITAR-TASS.

The blast had caused no interruptions in transit to Hungary on Tuesday, he added. Volumes could be compensated from underground gas storage facilities, Molnar said, while describing events as “the first alarming signal for the European transit system”.

Pipeline decompression and ignition took place at 2.20 pm local time on Tuesday in Ukraine's Poltava region. Flames reached up to100 meters.

Despite the emergency, Russian gas was being exported at a set volume of 180 million cubic meters a day, Gazprom Deputy CEO Vitaly Markelov said on Wednesday. He did not rule out new emergencies caused by the condition of Ukraine's gas transit system.