The Russian group Gazprom made this Saturday the announcement made on Friday that it would suspend, until further notice, the supply to Europe through the Nord Stream gas pipeline and did not resume the flow of gas this morning, as initially planned.
According to operational data collected by Nord Stream AG, the Swiss-based infrastructure management company, all indications for each time slot today are at zero.
Gazprom, which controls the gas pipeline linking Russia with Germany under the Baltic Sea, thus fulfills the announcement made on Friday that it would “completely” stop the supply of gas through the Nord Stream due to “oil leaks” detected in a turbine during the maintenance operation of the only compressor unit that was still in operation.
Due to this maintenance operation, the pipeline -vital for supplying Europe- should have been inactive for three days and has resumed operation today, at 04:00 Moscow time (01:00 GMT).
This recovery would be done at previous levels, that is, at 20% of its capacity, or 33 million cubic meters per day, something that has not yet happened, Russia alleging that the oil leak does not guarantee a safe operation. .
According to Gazprom, the complete elimination of oil leaks in the turbine is “only possible” in a specialized factory of the German supplier Siemens.
However, the German company assured that there are no technical reasons to stop the pipeline, since normally this type of leak does not affect the operation of a turbine and can be sealed ‘in loco’, in a routine operation.
Likewise, the European Union also does not believe the reason given for the gas cut, calling it a “fallacy”.
Gazprom has been reducing gas supplies through Nord Stream in recent months and had already carried out maintenance work for 10 days in July, before resuming deliveries at a more limited level.
In the context of the war in Ukraine, energy has been at the center of a tug-of-war between Moscow and Western countries, which accuse Russia of using gas “as a weapon”.
Source: TSF
