In the process of repairing main oil and gas pipelines with cutting out defective sections, due to the elastic stresses in the body of the pipeline at the end of the first cut, there is a sharp displacement of the pipeline ends on both sides of the cutting site. This sharp displacement poses a threat to the lives of workers, and also complicates the further process of welding a new section of the pipeline due to the need to center its ends relative to each other. At the same time, to reduce the displacement of the ends of the pipeline, it is often pressed down with an excavator bucket before cutting, which contradicts the safety rules for conducting repair work. This article examines the dependence of the displacement value of the ends of the pipeline on the existing elastic stresses in it in order to substantiate the need to take into account the elastic stresses in the body of the pipeline in the used repair methods, as well as the need to develop safe and technologically efficient equipment for fixing the position of the pipeline before cutting and further centering its ends relative to each other.