Incident at Urengoi

Has a fire stalled Moscow's natural gas pipeline?

For the Soviet Union, the building of a 2,759-mile natural gas pipeline from Siberia to Western Europe has become a test of technological prowess and a national crusade. Over the past two years, the Soviets have raced to finish the $ 18 billion project on schedule and prove that U.S. economic sanctions aimed at delaying the pipeline have had no impact. Construction crews, toiling feverishly in the harsh Siberian wilderness, were given 10% higher wages than similar laborers receive in Soviet cities and offered bonuses of up to six months' pay for fast work.

Deadlines for the pipeline were January 1984 for the first small shipments of gas and June 1984 for completion of the compressor stations that would bring the line to full operating capacity. With an air of satisfaction and triumph, Moscow announced two weeks ago that Siberian gas had started to flow into France on Jan. 1. Reported the Soviet news agency Novosti: "Whether Washington likes it or not, the pipeline is operating."

But even as the Soviets were proclaiming their success, reports were swirling in Moscow that the undertaking had suffered a setback. A fire at a compressor station in Urengoi, Siberia, was said to have damaged essential equipment. The Kremlin confirmed last week that the blaze had broken out on Dec. 15 in a pile of boxes lying on the floor of the station. The flames destroyed important electronic monitoring devices and control panels, but no one was injured. The Soviets denied that the accident would keep the pipeline from completion in June. Said Vasili Dinkov. Soviet Minister of the Gas Industry: "All the contentions by Western propaganda that the pipeline supposedly will not be ready by the scheduled date are nothing but an attempt to engage in wishful thinking." But Western experts contend that the fire at the Urengoi station, the largest of 41 planned compressor units, will delay the project perhaps six months. "We believe that the pipeline has been completed in the sense that all the pipe is welded together," said a Washington official. "But to blow gas through the pipeline, you need compressor stations, and only one or two of the 41 stations have been built."

Even the trickle of Soviet gas shipments to France this month may be a sham. Western energy specialists believe that the gas is traveling through a previously existing network of Soviet pipes rather than the new line from Siberia. Said an official in the French gas industry: "We don't know if the gas is Siberian or not, and we've got no way of telling." Some Western businessmen in Moscow doubt that the pipeline will be completed before the end of 1985.

Possible delays in gas deliveries are not going to disturb West European customers. When the West Germans and the French signed contracts with the Soviets in late 1981 and in 1982, they reportedly agreed to minimum gas prices that would be roughly equivalent to the cost of oil, then $34 per bbl. Since that time, however, oil has dipped to $29 per bbl., and the Europeans are trying to renegotiate their gas deals. Moreover, conservation and the recession have slashed European energy demand. Says Jean-Marie Chevalier, professor of economics at the University of Paris Nord: "The immediate problem in France is not a shortage of energy, but a surplus. We will not need the natural gas from the Soviets." It may be a long time before Moscow gets a payoff from its Siberian showpiece.