An explosion in northern Lithuania on Friday damaged the “Amber Grid” gas pipeline linking the Baltic states to Poland, without leaving any casualties, according to what the local operating company announced on its website.
According to a statement issued by the company, “At around five o’clock in the evening (19:00 GMT), an explosion occurred in the Amber Grid gas pipeline in the Pasvalis region. According to preliminary data, no one was injured.”
She explained that the explosion occurred in one of the two pipes in the line away from the residential buildings, and that the fire that caused it “is being extinguished.” The damaged pipe was constructed in 1978.
“The fire, which reached 50 meters at its peak, has begun to recede,” a firefighting official told AFP. “We immediately began to investigate the circumstances of the accident and ensure the supply of gas to consumers,” the company’s CEO, Nimunas Pekenios, said in the statement.
He added in statements to reporters: “Currently, we have not recorded any act of sabotage” related to this explosion, but “the investigation will cover all possible scenarios.” The company added that the gas pipeline in which the fire broke out is used to supply gas to northern Lithuania and transport it to neighboring Latvia. Since June 2022, Lithuania has banned the import of Russian gas in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
After regaining its independence from the Soviet Union in 1990, Lithuania relied heavily on Russian gas, until the liquefied natural gas station was operated in 2014 in Klaipeda on the Baltic Sea, and then in 2022 the exploitation of a new gas pipeline, linking the three Baltic countries to the European gas network, began. across Poland.
