German Chancellor Olaf Scholz assured on Sunday that Germany “will be able to cope with this winter” and guarantee energy supply, despite the reduction in deliveries of Russian gas, on which it depends to a great extent.
Olaf Scholz spoke at the press conference presenting a new (third) package to help families and businesses cope with rising costs of living and energy, raising the overall value of support measures in Germany up to 65,000 million euros.
“Russia is not a reliable energy supplier… The federal government has been preparing for this eventuality since the beginning of the year,” the German prime minister said.
Olaf Scholz also said that due to the diversification of supply sources and the supply of gas stocks, the country is in a position to face a prolonged interruption of supply through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
On Friday, Gazprom announced that the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, vital for supplies to Europe, will stop “completely” to repair a turbine, after being down for three days for maintenance.
In a statement, Gazprom said it had discovered “oil leaks” from the turbine during this maintenance operation and said that until it is repaired, the gas supply will be “completely suspended.”
Russia was due to resume gas supplies through the pipeline on Saturday after a three-day interruption.
Turbine manufacturer Siemens Energy declared, also on Friday, that the oil leaks do not technically justify the shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, decided by the Russian gas company Gazprom.
Source: TSF
