Explosie pijpleiding Moldavië raakt Europese gastoevoer (en)
EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS – Russian gas supplies to Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and the Balkan countries dropped on Wednesday after a large explosion on a main transit pipeline in Transnistria, the Moldovan breakaway region, highlighting the security gap in EU's immediate neighbourhood.
The blast occurred on Wednesday morning at 5:35 a.m. local time (3:35 a.m. Brussels time), some 10 kilometres away from Tiraspol, the region's capital, located in eastern Moldova on the border with Ukraine.
The explosion created a 110-square-metre-wide crater and was heard ten kilometres away, the Emergency Situation Department's spokeswoman Liliana Puscasu said. Only several hours after the blast, firefighters managed to extinguish flames that leapt a reported 50 metres into the air.
There were no casualties, however, as the pipeline exploded outside any inhabited areas.
Both Moldovan and non-recognised Transnistrian officials ruled out any terrorist action, saying the underground pipeline was probably damaged by a landslide after days of heavy rain in the hilly region.
Bulgaria, one of the EU countries worst hit by gas cuts in January when Gazprom halted exports to Europe via Ukraine due to bilateral pricing and debt issues, was again experiencing shortfalls of nearly 70 percent.
However, Bulgarian consumers were not in danger of experiencing gas cuts, as the country had stocks for another three days. By then, gas flows should be fully restored, Bulgarian officials told BTA.
Both Gazprom and Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz said that deliveries of Russian gas to the Balkans via Moldova have been cut by 40 percent due to the explosion.
The blow had damaged only one of the three pipelines transporting Russian gas to Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey. Naftogaz was working on supplementing the exported gas quantities through the other two pipelines. "But we can't pump more than the pipes can carry", Valentin Zemlianski from Naftogaz said. He added that it would take between two and five days to restore gas supplies in full.
EU's gas co-ordination group, a body chaired by the European Commission comprising national experts would meet on Thursday for its regular meeting and analyse the situation created by the Moldovan blast, commission spokesman Ferran Tarradellas told EUobserver.
Need for EU involvement in Moldova
"This accident proves once again that more measures should be taken to protect and modernise transit pipelines," Polish MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, chairman of the foreign affairs committee told this website.
"It is a question of European energy security and the EU should consider involving also in Moldova in such a modernisation, just as it did in Ukraine," Mr Wolski added, referring to an EU-Ukraine agreement signed last week pledging assistance to modernise the country's 13,500 km pipeline system.
The explosion was also highlighting the need for the EU to get more involved in solving the frozen conflict in Moldova, Romanian MEP Marian-Jean Marinescu said.
"The explosion is yet another reason why we should solve frozen conflicts, in order for these territories to be submitted to real, democratic control," he argued.
Moldova is one of the countries included in EU's most recent neighbourhood policy, the Eastern Partnership, along with Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Belarus.
Home to some a population of 537,000 and some 1,200 Russian peacekeeping troops, military equipment and 22,000 tons of ammunition, Transnistria was the scene of a violent war in the early years following the break-up of the Soviet Union, similar to other break-away regions such as South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia or Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaidjan. Up to 700 people were killed in the conflict which ended with a ceasefire signed in June 1992 and enforced by the Russian 14 Army.
Its non-recognised status makes it prone to illegal arms dealers, organised crime and smuggling. The EU has sent a 200-strong border assistance mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM), but it only has an advisory role to Moldovan and Ukrainian customs and border patrols.
Tensions between the Communist leadership in Chisinau and the de-facto authorities in Transnistria have risen as Moldova prepares for general elections this Sunday (5 April).
The EU has postponed the adoption of the mandate for a new association agreement with Moldova until after the elections, hoping to see free and fair elections.
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