Berlin, Aug 31: Russia has completely halted gas supplies to Europe via major pipeline Nord Stream 1, saying repairs are needed 189 days after it launched war against Ukraine and faced EU sanctions in response.
The Russian state-owned energy giant, Gazprom, said the restrictions on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would last for the next three days. Russia has already significantly reduced gas exports via the pipeline.
But it rejects accusations of using energy supplies as a way to punish Western nations for imposing sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine, the BBC said.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline stretches 1,200km under the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast near St Petersburg to north-eastern Germany.
It opened in 2011, and can send a maximum of 170m cubic metres of gas per day from Russia to Germany.
The pipeline was shut down for 10 days in July – again for repairs, according to Russia – and has recently been operating at just 20 per cent capacity because of what Russia describes as faulty equipment, the BBC reported.
European leaders fear Russia could extend the outage in an attempt to drive up gas prices.
On Tuesday, French Energy Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher accused Russia of “using gas as a weapon of war”. She was speaking after Gazprom said it would suspend gas deliveries to the French energy company Engie.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has rejected the accusations – and insisted that Western sanctions have caused the interruptions by damaging Russian infrastructure. He insisted that that “technological problems” caused by sanctions are the only thing preventing Russia from supplying gas.
The most recent controversy has been over a turbine which arrived in Germany after being repaired in Canada and which Russia refused to take back, arguing it was subject to the Western sanctions, the BBC said. Germany, however, denies this.
Earlier this month, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said the pipeline was fully operational and said there were no technical issues as claimed by Russia.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised to intervene in energy markets, telling a conference in Slovenia that they are “no longer fit for purpose”. “We need a new market model for electricity that really functions and brings us back into balance,” she said.
Last week, the BBC reported Russia has been burning off an estimated $10 million worth of gas every day at a plant near the Finnish border.
With UNI Inputs….
