This rebound will further accentuate the anxiety of Europeans, who are struggling to avoid an energy crisis this winter and accuse Moscow of using gas as a weapon to avenge Western sanctions after the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
The Russian giant Gazprom has announced that the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which was to resume service on Saturday after maintenance, will finally be “completely” stopped until the repair of a turbine in this vital pipeline for supplying Europeans. In a press release, Gazprom said Friday evening that it had discovered “oil leaks” in the turbine during this maintenance operation. “Until the repair (…) the transport of gas via Nord Stream is completely suspended”, indicated the group. Gazprom did not specify how long this repair could last.
This rebound will further accentuate the anxiety of Europeans, who are struggling to avoid an energy crisis this winter and accuse Moscow of using gas as a weapon to avenge Western sanctions after the Russian offensive in Ukraine. Russia was due to resume gas deliveries via Nord Stream on Saturday, after another three-day interruption for maintenance operations.
Gazprom claimed to have discovered this “oil leak” during a technical inspection carried out with representatives of the German group Siemens, which manufactured the turbine. The Russian group reports this oil leak on “cables connected to speedometers of a rotor”. On Telegram, the group posted a photo showing cables surrounded by a brownish liquid. Earlier in the day, the Kremlin claimed that the operation of the Nord Stream gas pipeline was “threatened” by a shortage of spare parts due to sanctions targeting Moscow.
Winter is coming
Since the start of the Kremlin’s military intervention in Ukraine at the end of February, Russia has already stopped its gas supplies, via other pipelines, to several EU countries, such as Bulgaria and Poland. And, in July, Gazprom had already carried out ten days of maintenance work on the Nord Stream gas pipeline which had then been restarted but with a further drop in deliveries.
A German official had deemed this week’s interruption “technically incomprehensible”, seeing it as a political maneuver by Russia. “We can no longer rely on Russia or Gazprom” to meet their commitments on gas deliveries, repeated this week the Minister of Economy, Robert Habeck.
It now seems that fears of a total halt to Russian deliveries as winter approaches are being confirmed. To compensate for the missing quantities, Europeans are trying to find other suppliers and reduce their consumption against a backdrop of skyrocketing gas prices on the markets and the specter of recession.
A total cut in Russian gas could cut French growth by one point
A total cut off from Russian gas could cut French growth by one point, said Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire. In Germany, activity is expected to contract in the second half, weighed down by the impact of soaring energy prices on the powerful industrial sector. In Europe’s largest economy, however, the threat of a gas shortage this winter seems to be receding. The country is struggling to reduce its dependence on Russia which still reached 55% of gas imports in February and considers that its efforts are starting to pay off.
Projects to install several floating terminals for importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) have seen a marked acceleration: the first two units should come into operation this winter. A diversification that “will help to get through the winter without major disruptions”, according to the Ministry of the Economy. Chancellor Olaf Scholz felt that Germany is now “in a much better position” to face the coming months.