Russian gas supply cut by Turkmen blast

ASHGABAT (AFP) - An explosion on a pipeline in the Central Asian state of Turkmenistan halted gas supplies to Russia on Thursday, but was not expected to disrupt supplies to Europe.
Turkmengaz informed Gazprom that on April 9 at 01:32 an explosion occurred at the 487th kilometre of the Davletbat-Daryalik pipeline. Since then, transport of Turkmen gas to Russia has not been carried out, Gazprom said.
At present the Turkmen side is working to rapidly repair the damage ... The damage will not affect the supply of gas to Gazproms customers, the Russian energy giant said in a statement. An official in Turkmenistans government confirmed the blast had occurred but said the line should be up and running again shortly.
Delivery of gas to the Central-Asia Centre pipeline has been temporarily halted. The repair of the damaged section will take several days, he told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The Turkmenistan foreign ministry issued a statement blaming Russia for the mishap.
Russian company Gazprom, without prior notification to the Turkmen side, abruptly decreased the volume of withdrawal of Turkmen natural gas. As a result, on a section of the pipeline... a disaster occurred, the ministry said.
Gazprom dispatched deputy chief executive Valery Golubev to the site from its Moscow headquarters, Interfax reported.
Russia leans heavily on Central Asian gas to help meet demand from energy-hungry European states, reflecting the sluggish exploration and development of Russian fields.
The EU sources almost a quarter of its gas needs from Russia, being heavily reliant on the gas for heating and certain industrial activities.
A series of recent problems with Russian gas supplies, most notably a row with transit-country Ukraine that saw supplies cut earlier this year, have raised questions about Russias reliability.
Most of the gas Russia supplies to Ukraine derives originally from Turkmenistan.
The pipeline from Turkmenistan is part of the massive Central-Asia Centre supply network, which transports natural gas from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to Russia.
Although Turkmenistan is the main supplier of gas to the damaged pipeline, other nations along the route contribute small amounts when it passes through their territory.
Russia has a virtual monopoly on energy exports from reclusive ex-Soviet Turkmenistan, drawing some 50 billion cubic metres of gas per annum.
Gazprom says the total supply network ships 80 billion cubic metres of Central Asian gas to Russia every year.
An explosion earlier this month on a Gazprom export pipeline in Moldova further underscored the dangers of the regions ageing Soviet infrastructure much of which was built in the 1960s and badly needs modernisation.
Turkmenistan lies between the Caspian Sea, Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and is believed to have huge gas reserves beneath its mainly desert territory.