Gazprom he attributed his decision to an oil leak detected during maintenance of the only compressor station still in operation. From the Kremlin they have threatened to leave Europe without gas if the initiatives to establish a cap on the price prosper.
The Russian state consortium Gazprom has announced the complete suspension of gas supplies through the Nord Stream pipeline due to an oil leak detected during maintenance of the only compressor station still in operation.
Until the malfunction of the equipment is eliminated, the transit of gas through the Nord Stream pipeline is completely suspended,” Gazprom reported on its Telegram account.
According to the company, similar oil leaks had been detected in the past in three other turbines, which “it is only possible” to fix in a specialized workshop, adds the Russian consortium, citing Siemens.
Just today, the Kremlin had warned that the reliability of the gas pipeline was in danger, since there are no reserve equipment that can replace those that are out of service.
“There are no technological reserves, only one turbine is working. Do the calculations,” said the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov, in his daily telephone press conference and in response to whether there would be more stoppages of the Nord Stream beyond tomorrow for technical maintenance and repairs.
Another Russian representative, the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, Dimitri Medvedevdirectly threatened this morning to leave Europe without gas if the initiatives to establish a cap on the price prosper, as has been proposed, among others, by the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen.
For his part, the president of Gazprom, Alexei Miller, has defended on several occasions that the sanctions imposed by the international community in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine make repair tasks difficult, which would correspond to the Siemens firm.
Oil price cap
Russia’s decision comes after the G7 reiterated its intention to gather the necessary support to impose a cap on the price of Russian oil.
This measure is intended to “reduce Russian revenue from oil sales” which is an important source of financing for the invasion of Ukraine and, at the same time, contain the rise in world energy prices.
Setback for Europe
Gazprom planned this Saturday to resume the flow of gas at a level of 33 million cubic meters per day, an amount equivalent to 20% of the effective capacity of this infrastructure, according to the Bloomberg agency.
Germany relies on this gas pipeline to cover internal demand, after another alternative project, the ‘Nord Stream 2’, has been parked due to the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February.
