Explosion rips through gas pipeline in Russia

An explosion on a section of a Europe-bound natural gas pipeline in western Russia killed three people on Tuesday but didnt affect export supplies, officials said.The explosion ripped through a section of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhhorod pipeline in the Chuvashia region during repair works.

An explosion on a section of a Europe-bound natural gas pipeline in western Russia killed three people on Tuesday but didn't affect export supplies, officials said.

The explosion ripped through a section of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhhorod pipeline in the Chuvashia region during repair works. Regional authorities said that three repair workers were killed and one was injured by the explosion that sent a huge plume of burning gas high into the air.

The pipeline that originates at a gas field in Siberia and crosses Ukraine on its way to Europe is one of the main routes for Russian gas exports to the EU nations.

Chuvashia's governor, Oleg Nikolayev, said in televised remarks that it wasn't immediately clear how long it will take to fix the section of the pipeline cut by the explosion. The regional branch of Russia's state-controlled Gazprom natural gas giant said that volumes of gas transit weren't affected by the blast as supplies have continued on parallel links.