Berlin-Russia’s state-owned gas monopoly, Gazprom will send more natural gas to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline on Monday, less than a week after resuming limited flow after an annual outage. He said he would reduce it.
The flow was already reduced to 40% of capacity, Gazprom said It will compress to 20 percent from Wednesday because of a problem with one of the powerful turbines manufactured by the German company Siemens Energy. Turbines apply pressure into the pipeline to transport gas over long distances.
In mid-June, Russia began reducing the amount of gas transported through its 760-mile submarine pipeline, accusing it of reducing the shortage of turbines shipped to Canada for repairs.
Monday, Gazprom Said The social media description says, “We shut down another gas turbine engine manufactured by Siemens.”
Germany’s Ministry of Economy has long rejected Gazprom’s claim that turbine damage was due to restrictions on gas flow, and instead reductions are another way to punish Europe for Russia’s opposition to the war in Ukraine. Said that.
The Berlin government opposed the recent expected reductions in Gazprom.
“Based on our information, there is no technical reason for reduced deliveries,” the German Ministry of Economy said in a statement following Gazprom’s announcement.
Observers say President Vladimir Putin used Russia’s energy exports as a club, breaking President Putin’s intention to punish and divide European leaders by loosening and tightening taps that suit him. rice field.
“The announcement of Gazprom is not surprising,” said Simon Tagliapietra, a senior researcher at Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank. “Russia is playing a strategy game here. Fluctuation of already low flows is better than a full cutoff because it manipulates the market and optimizes geopolitical impact.”
The European Union’s Energy Ministers will meet in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss proposals to save energy for the 27-member block citizens and businesses. But the division is plagued by the idea that countries that are not heavily dependent on Russia’s gas, such as Greece and Spain, need to cut consumption to help their wealthy northern partner Germany. It’s happening.
Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Germany relied on Russia to supply 55% of its total natural gas demand. We’ve reduced that share to 30% in the last few months, but we’re scrambling to save enough fuel to have enough stores to survive the winter.
Hours before Gazprom announced new cuts, German network regulator Klaus Müller said the country’s storage facility “finally got off to a good start” as it reached 65.9% capacity. .. The goal is to have 75% full storage by the beginning of September.
Gazprom’s announcement should reveal to all European Union member states how important it is to act swiftly and decisively to start saving gas, Talia Pietra said. “We can’t delay our actions any further.”
