A view shows pipes at the ground facilities of the ‘Nord Stream 1’ gas pipeline in Lubmin, Germany, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/File Photo
Sign up now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
- This content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine.
MOSCOW, July 25 (Reuters) – Russia stepped up its gas pressure in Europe on Monday as Gazprom ( GAZP.MM ) said supplies to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would drop to just 20 percent of the capacity
Gazprom said flows would drop to 33 million cubic meters per day from 04:00 GMT on Wednesday – a reduction to half the current, already reduced level – because it needed to shut down the operation of a Siemens gas turbine in a compression station following instructions from an industry control body. .
Germany said it saw no technical reason for the latest reduction, which comes as Russia and the West trade economic blows in response to what Moscow calls its special military operation in Ukraine.
Sign up now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
The Dutch first-month gas contract, the European benchmark, closed up 9.95% on news of the latest blow to Nord Stream 1. The pipeline, which has a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters in year, it is the largest gas link in Russia. europe
The European Union has repeatedly accused Russia of resorting to energy blackmail, while the Kremlin says the shortfalls have been caused by maintenance problems and the effect of Western sanctions.
Europe’s politicians have said Russia could cut gas flows this winter, pushing Germany into recession and driving up prices for consumers already struggling with higher food prices and energy
Germany was forced last week to announce a $15 billion bailout of Uniper ( UN01.DE ), its biggest Russian gas importer. Read more
PUTIN WARNING
President Vladimir Putin had foreshadowed the latest cut, warning the West this month that continued sanctions risked catastrophic increases in energy prices for consumers around the world. Read more
Russia had already cut flows through Nord Stream from 1 to 40 percent of capacity in June, citing the delayed return of a turbine that was being serviced by Siemens Energy ( ENR1n.DE ) in Canada, an explanation that Germany rejected as fake.
It then shut down Nord Stream 1 entirely for 10 days of annual maintenance this month, restarting it last Thursday still at 40% of normal levels.
The maintenance of this first turbine is still a matter of dispute as it makes its way back to Russia through a tangle of paperwork and conflicting statements.
Gazprom said on Monday it had received documents from Siemens Energy ( ENR1n.DE ) and Canada, but they “do not eliminate the risks identified above and raise additional questions.”
He also said there were still questions about the EU and UK sanctions, “the resolution of which is important for the delivery of the engine to Russia and the urgent review of other gas turbine engines for the Portovaya compressor station”.
Siemens Energy said the transport of the serviced turbine to Russia could start immediately and the ball was in Gazprom’s court.
“The German authorities provided Siemens Energy with all the necessary documents for the export of the turbine to Russia at the beginning of last week. Gazprom is aware of this,” he said.
“What is missing, however, are customs documents for import into Russia. Gazprom, as a customer, is obliged to provide them.”
The German company said it saw no link between the turbine problem and gas cuts implemented or announced by Gazprom. Gazprom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Kremlin previously said Moscow was not interested in a complete shutdown of Russian gas supplies to Europe, which is struggling to fill its underground storage ahead of the peak winter demand season.
The outage has raised the risk of gas rationing on the continent, with the European Union last week proposing to member states to cut gas consumption by 15% between August and March compared to the same period in previous years.
Russia is the world’s second largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia and the world’s largest exporter of natural gas. Europe imports about 40% of its gas and 30% of its oil from Russia.
Sign up now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
Report from Reuters in Moscow; additional reporting by Nina Chestney, Marwa Awad and Christoph Steitz; written by Mark Trevelyan, edited by Guy Faulconbridge, Barbara Lewis and Tomasz Janowski
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.