Contrary to what has been announced, no gas will flow through the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline from this Saturday. The state-owned company Gazprom announced this on Telegram on Friday evening. The reason is an oil leak in the Portovaya compressor station. The gas flow remains stopped until it is eliminated. It had been expected that after the announced three-day maintenance work had been completed, gas would flow through the pipeline again from Saturday morning.
“Secure operation not possible”
According to Gazprom, the leak was discovered during maintenance work on the station, which was carried out jointly with experts from Siemens Energy. The leaked oil was found in several places. It is not possible to guarantee the safe operation of the last remaining gas turbine there. It was said that such oil spills had happened in the past.
A letter about the complaints about the Trent 60 unit with the number 24 and about the necessary repairs went to the head of Siemens Energy, Christian Bruch, Gazprom said. The first gas deliveries had previously been announced for Saturday morning. This emerged from preliminary data on the Nord Stream AG website. According to this, gas deliveries were scheduled again from Saturday 2:00 a.m.
The volume of the announced deliveries initially corresponded to the level before the interruption, i.e. around 20 percent of the maximum possible volume and thus 33 million cubic meters of natural gas daily. In the late Friday afternoon, the preliminary data then showed only a hardly significant amount.
No gas since Wednesday
Since Wednesday morning, no gas has flowed through the last most important pipeline for Russian gas to Germany. According to the Russian energy company Gazprom, the reason is maintenance work on a compressor station. The company had announced that the delivery stop would last until September 2nd.
The Russian energy giant Gazprom is not to blame for the fact that the reliability of the line through the Baltic Sea is at risk, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Interfax agency at noon. There are no technical reserves. “Only one turbine is running,” he said when asked by a journalist about possible further interruptions.
Gas supply as a weapon of war
Russia had reduced gas deliveries via the Baltic Sea pipeline to 40 percent in June and 20 percent in July, citing maintenance problems and sanctions as the reason for this, such as the return of a turbine checked in the West. subsequently had Gazprom announced an interruption in delivery due to maintenance work. Western countries such as Germany and France accuse the leadership in Moscow of using the gas supply as a weapon of war.
On Wednesday, Russia stopped gas transport to Germany and other European countries through Nord Stream 1 for the second time in a few weeks. Hopes for subsequent full operation of the tube were raised by statements by Gazprom-Boss Alexej Miller received a damper. He blamed western sanctions for the fact that major maintenance work was not possible. The federal government considers this to be a pretext. She accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin of waging an economic war against Germany and is therefore pushing for the gas storage tanks to be filled. According to the Federal Network Agency, we are on the right track. In November, the storage should be 95 percent full.
Source: Nachrichten
