The fall in Russian gas supply has increased the concern in Europe that Putin can completely shut down its supply via the Nord Stream. A threat that comes on the same day that the leaders of France, Germany and Italy visited Ukraine and that could go further since it is not ruled out that Russia completely closes the most important supply line for Germany. The Russian ambassador to the European Union (EU), Vladimir Chizhov, stressed on Thursday at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg that the pipeline could be completely closed due to problems with the repair of the turbines in Canada. “I think that would be a disaster for Germany.”
The warning comes just two days after the Russian energy giant Gazprom announced a 40% reduction in gas supply through the Nord Stream, forcing the Federal Network Agency to release a statement in which, in order to calm the markets, assured that “the gas supply in Germany is stable”.
In parallel, the Federal Minister of the Economy, Robert Habeck, described the situation as serious, although his ministry argued that “the supply is still guaranteed.” Contrary to Gazprom’s claim that the reason for the cut was delays in repair work, Habeck suspects that there is a political decision behind it. Something that was refuted shortly after by the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, who blamed the reduction in supply on the sanctions imposed on Russia by the West. “All we know is that there were real problems with the turbines and some of them are being held up somewhere,” he said.
According to Gazprom chief Alexej Miller, there is no immediate solution. “The turbine is in the factory and Siemens can’t pick it up,” he said. In addition, the Russian energy company ensures that it will follow its own rules when supplying gas to other countries. Miller explained that Siemens only has one plant where they do these technical reviews of the motors and this one is in Canada. “Canada imposed sanctions and now Siemens cannot remove the turbines” to return them to Russia, he explained.
From the point of view of the president of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, throttling is a warning sign. “Unfortunately, Russia is fueling uncertainty and driving up gasoline prices,” he said. If Gazprom only delivers 40% of the gas via Nord Stream for weeks, Germany would have a problem, he added: “That would significantly worsen our situation.” In view of the fall, Minister Habeck once again called for energy savings. In a video that circulated on Twitter, he appealed: “Now is the time to do this, every kilowatt hour helps us in this situation.” But not only Germany has to deal with the reduction in supply. The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria also reported restrictions. According to the Czech supplier CEZ, these are related to technical problems and the Slovakian gas importer SPP experienced a reduction of around 30%. Since the start of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine at the end of February, gas supplies to Europe from Russia have been considered at risk. Since then, Germany and other European countries have been trying to reduce their dependence on Russian gas by buying more gas from other countries.
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