Russia’s gas monopoly, Gazprom, said Wednesday that it is further tightening its natural gas supply through its main pipeline to Germany. According to the company, Nord Stream 1, a flow through the pipeline, will be reduced by 60% the day after announcing a 40% reduction.
Gazprom said a turbine for a compressor station in northwestern Russia was sent for repair, but was not in time and needs to be reduced. German turbine maker Siemens Energy said the turbines were sent to Canada for maintenance at a specialized facility in Montreal and were delayed due to Ottawa’s sanctions against Russia.
Siemens Energy said it was trying to resolve the situation.
However, the German government has stated that Gazprom will take advantage of delays from repairs to earn political points and achieve their stated goal of building a buffer of stored gas for Germany and Europe next winter. More fuel said it could be more difficult.
“Russian justification is just an excuse,” German Minister of Economy Robert Habeck told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday. “It’s clearly a strategy to destabilize and push prices up.”
In addition to worries, Gazprom’s main customer, Eni, an Italian energy company, said on Wednesday that a Russian company would cut its gas supply for the day by about 15 percent. A spokeswoman for Eni said Gazprom did not provide a reason to tighten supply.
Currently, there seems to be no risk of an imminent shortage. Germany and other countries are importing excess gas to fill their storage facilities. Habeck said the price is high, but there may be enough gas on the market.
Until Tuesday, the gas situation in Europe appeared to be relatively stable despite the war in Ukraine. Storage in the European Union as a whole is over 50%, about 10% higher than it was a year ago. Analysts have even expressed concern that European utilities may have too much gas.
Gazprom’s move over the past two days has rekindled concerns about a major cut in supply to Europe. After a surge on Tuesday, gas prices rose about 25% on the TTF exchange to € 121 per MW, about six times more than a year ago.
It is an industry standard practice to suck gas into a storage tank in the summer when demand is low and the gas is relatively cheap, and burn it in the winter. However, last year prices did not fall to low levels and less gas was stored than usual. Some analysts say Gazprom deliberately kept German facilities low and otherwise sought to influence the market prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Christopher F. Schutze Report that contributed.
