The German government has called on citizens of the EU’s largest economy to save energy while Russia cuts off gas supplies to more and more European countries.
German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said the situation was “serious” and that “now is the time” for businesses and ordinary citizens to save energy and store gas. “Every kilowatt hour helps in this situation,” he said in a video call posted on Twitter on Thursday.
Russian state-controlled gas exporter Gazprom has cut flows through the Nord Stream pipeline, which runs below the Baltic Sea to Germany, by 60 percent in recent days, citing technical problems. But Germany has said the move is political, amid growing tensions between Moscow and the West over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Germany’s largest electricity supply company, RWE, reported a reduction in gas flows on Thursday. Italy’s supply fell 15 percent on Wednesday and Italian energy company Eni said the deficit had worsened on Thursday, while Slovakia reported a 30 percent reduction in flows. Meanwhile, Austrian energy company OMV said it had been informed by Gazprom that delivery volumes would be reduced.
Russian supply restrictions came as leaders in Germany, Italy and France visited Kyiv on Thursday in a show of support for the Ukrainian government nearly four months after the war.
EU politicians have accused Russia of effectively enforcing its role as one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers, while post-invasion European sanctions have raised fears of further retaliatory cuts by Russia .
European gas prices, which are now approaching record levels, have soared more than 70 percent this week in response to the latest supply restrictions, reaching 146 euros per megawatt hour on Wednesday, a gain of almost 30 percent in the day.
Gazprom has attributed the reduction in gas flows in Germany to technical problems with the Nord Stream pipeline after pumping equipment, supplied by Germany’s Siemens Energy, was hampered by Canadian sanctions following repairs to its pipeline. Montreal factory. Only about 67 million cubic meters of gas are now being pumped through Nord Stream, 40 percent of its technical capacity.
Russia’s envoy to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, warned on Thursday that further problems with the repairs could lead to the complete shutdown of the pipeline, with devastating consequences for Germany.
“Siemens should be asked why they had to send turbines to Canada for repairs,” Chizhov told Ria Novosti news agency. “When all these turbines go to Canada for maintenance, it could be stopped. I think it’s going to be a disaster for Germany.”
Gazprom President Alexei Miller said on Thursday that “there was no solution” to the problem with Nord Stream turbines, as the Canadian plant is the only one that can repair Siemens Energy turbines.
Canada said it could not return the turbines because it was the only country that had introduced sanctions against Gazprom, he added.
Nearly all other turbines were about to require maintenance, “but we can’t ship them to Canada,” Miller said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. He added that Siemens Energy was trying to find a solution to the problem.
Miller said rising gas prices had offset the double-digit drop in Gazprom’s exports to Europe and Turkey. “It simply came to our notice then. . . several times. So excuse me, but if I said we weren’t angry with anyone, I wouldn’t lie. ”
Habeck said Berlin was aware that Canada’s sanctions could affect the maintenance schedules of Nord Stream’s compressor stations, but that this would only become a problem in the autumn.
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The technical reasons mentioned by Gazprom were just a “pretext” and the cut in flows was a “political action”, he added. “[Russian president Vladimir] Putin is doing what we always feared he would do from the beginning. It is reducing the volume of gas, not all at once, but gradually. ”
Sergiy Makogon, executive director of Ukraine’s state-owned gas transmission network, said on Thursday: “The Kremlin [has] decided to continue the EU’s escalation and blackmail. ”
Russia could offset lower volumes passing through Nord Stream by increasing gas supplies through Ukraine and Poland, he said, but “they do not have [the] will ”to do so.
Eni, meanwhile, said in a statement that Gazprom’s gas supply deficit had worsened. The company said it had requested additional supplies to be delivered on Thursday to offset the previous day’s cut. But Gazprom said it would only deliver 65 percent of Eni’s application, or about 32 million cubic meters, well below the amount needed to recover lost volumes.
Eni said Gazprom had blamed the deficit on problems at its Portovaya plant, which feeds Nord Stream.
In Austria, which imports about 80 percent of its gas from Russia, OMV said that despite reduced flows, demand could be met by existing spot market stores and supplies, thanks to reduced consumption during the current heat wave. “Our customers’ supply is assured,” the company added.
However, analysts warned that while immediate gas supplies could be met, filling storage before peak demand in the winter would be much more difficult if Russian supply continued to fall.
Additional reports by Amy Kazmin in Rome, Sam Jones in Zurich, Joe Miller in Frankfurt and Andy Bounds in Brussels