Gazprom to shut off Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline for three days

Moscow, Aug 20 Russian energy giant Gazprom has announced that it would stop supplies to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline between August 31 and September 2.

The company on Friday said that the move was down to routine maintenance, dpa news agency reported.

Gazprom had already drastically reduced gas deliveries to Germany claiming the reduction was due to a missing turbine citing a turbine which was missing. The turbine had been sent to Canada for repairs but was held up in the country due to Western sanctions on Moscow.

German officials have repeatedly maintained that the move was an attempt by Moscow to punish Berlin for its stance on the war in Ukraine and for imposing sanctions on Russia.

After the latest maintenance work, nearly 33 million cubic metres of natural gas should be delivered daily. This corresponds to 20 per cent of the daily maximum output.

During the three days of maintenance, the only functioning turbine at the Portovaya compressor station is to be checked and overhauled, Gazprom said. This is to be done in cooperation with specialists from Germany's Siemens Energy.

When asked, Siemens Energy made no comment on the announcement.

A spokesperson for the Federal Network Agency said on Friday evening that the situation was being closely monitored alongside the gas industry and the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.

The gas flow through Nord Stream 1 was currently unchanged at 20 per cent, the spokesperson said.

With the West and Moscow at loggerheads over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which started nearly six months ago, Berlin has been rushing to wean itself off Russian gas. Across the country, gas storage levels are at 78 per cent, according to data from European gas storage operators.

During a video message on Friday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of using the gas pipelines for blackmail and mentioned Gazprom's announcement about the three-day gas hiatus.

"These 'streams' are needed by Russia exclusively to supply problems to Europe, not to help someone there with gas. Now it is absolutely obvious," he said in Kiev.

"The longer the terrorist state remains on the European and world energy market, the longer it will not be stable. And the sooner everyone in Europe prepares their energy systems to exist without any supply of energy carriers from Russia, the sooner they will be able to calmly go through any winter."

Germany's dependence on Russian gas has prompted serious concerns about energy shortages during the cold winter months, when millions of households rely on gas for heating.

However, a senior member of the Free Democrats (FDP), a junior coalition partner in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government, suggested that the stalled Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia could be the answer to a looming winter energy emergency.

"We should hasten to open Nord Stream 2 in order to fill up our gas tanks for the winter," FDP deputy leader Wolfgang Kubicki told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland media group. There was "no sensible reason" not to do so, he added.

His remarks, however, drew widespread criticism on Friday, including from his own FDP.

Party parliamentary leader Christian Durr told dpa news agency that "we are conducting intense discussions on how to avoid a looming energy crisis this winter. As a party, we have made a number of proposals on this matter. Opening Nord Stream 2 is not one of them."

He also said that opening the pipeline, which had been due for certification days before Russia invaded Ukraine in February, would send "the wrong signal to our European partners".

Instead, Durr called for Germany's three remaining nuclear plants to continue operating for the time being, in order to ease the strain on the energy market. The reactors are due to shut down at the end of the year, as part of Germany's exit from nuclear energy.

Without naming Kubicki, Zelensky spoke of "absurd statements" in Germany to put Nord Stream 2 into operation in his video message.

The leader of the Greens, Omid Nouripour, told dpa that Kubicki's proposal would be ineffective, as Russia was already cutting down the volume of gas delivered through the operational Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

"It is completely irrelevant how many empty pipelines you open," he said.

A spokesperson for Scholz's Social Democrats, Nils Schmid, accused Kubicki of "adopting Russian propaganda". The problem was not a lack of pipelines, but a refusal by Russian President Vladimir Putin to deliver more gas, he noted.

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