Dusseldorf The Russian gas company Gazprom further cuts supplies through the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1. From Wednesday onwards, 20 percent of the possible amount, or 33 million cubic meters of gas, would flow through the most important supply line to Germany every day, the company announced on Monday.
As a reason, Gazprom cites the repair of another turbine. The Russian supervisory authority Rostekhnadzor, which takes care of the technical aspects of the energy supply, ordered the review.
Federal Network Agency boss Klaus Müller confirmed the report. “Nord Stream 1’s nomination was halved for Wednesday,” he wrote via Twitter. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs rejected Gazprom’s reasoning: “According to our information, there is no technical reason for a reduction in deliveries.”
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to cut gas supplies via Nord Stream 1. The reason he gave at the time was the dispute over another turbine from the energy technology group Siemens Energy.
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This was in Canada for maintenance. She has been on her way to Russia for several days. However, Gazprom again complained on Monday that documents for re-importation were incorrect in view of the current sanctions law.
Siemens Energy commented in detail on the subject for the first time in the evening: “The transport of the turbine has been prepared and could start immediately,” the group said. “What is missing, however, are the necessary customs documents for importing to Russia. This information can only be provided by the customer.”
Several turbines from the German Siemens subsidiary are used in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline at the Portovaya site. The fact that Russia is now citing another turbine as the reason for the delivery problems does not seem any more credible to those involved in Germany than the previous argument. “At the moment we see no connection between the turbine and the gas throttling that has been carried out or announced,” said Siemens Energy.
The German government also considers the arguments put forward by Russia and Gazprom to be fabricated and sees the actions as part of the Kremlin’s blackmail strategy because of Western sanctions against Russia in connection with the Ukraine war. The Ministry of Economics announced that the situation around Nord Stream 1 was being monitored very closely in close cooperation with the Federal Network Agency and the Gas Crisis Team.
Green politicians: flimsy reasons
The economic policy spokesman for the Greens, Dieter Janecek, called the reasons given by Gazprom “thimble”: “It remains true that we are preparing intensively for all scenarios,” he told the Handelsblatt.
The federal government and experts are in agreement: the turbine cannot be the technical reason for the lower deliveries; instead, the throttling is a political calculation. “Sometimes you get the impression that Russia doesn’t want to take them back at all,” Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) said on Thursday.
Industry circles also say that a single turbine is not responsible for the functioning of the entire pipeline. After all, even in smaller compressor stations, “redundancies” are always planned. This means you always install several turbines or have replacements to ensure the gas flow at all times. However, Gazprom continues to emphasize that the reliable operation of the Nord Stream gas pipeline and the supply of European consumers depend on the turbine.
Expect more price jumps
If Nord Stream deliveries actually level off at 20 percent in the long term, that would be another setback for the ailing German economy. Shortly after the announcement on Monday afternoon, the gas price on the Dutch TTF exchange for August jumped by ten euros per megawatt hour to currently 176.
A gas shortage, which would lead to the shutdown of production, is not necessarily to be expected in this scenario, but cannot be ruled out either. “The renewed cuts show once again how unreliable the gas supply from Russia is at the moment,” emphasizes expert Schröder.
Should there be a complete failure of delivery, the consequences would be dramatic. Calculations by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) indicate that Germany would then definitely be pushed into a recession.
In the worst case, economic output would collapse by three percent. According to the IMF, this situation will arise if, in the event of a supply freeze, the EU countries do not share their gas reserves among themselves and do not absorb price shocks for consumers.
On Monday there were still positive signals about the gas supply. Federal Network Agency boss Müller announced at noon that the gas storage facilities would be refilled.
Now one is “finally back on a proper storage path”, says Müller. The average memory level is currently 65.9 percent. The legal requirement for September 1st is 75 percent.
Germany has drastically reduced its gas imports from Russia in recent months – currently only 26 percent of natural gas consumption in this country comes from Russia. In 2021, the proportion was still just under 55 percent. However, the Russian gas is needed above all with a view to the coming winter in order to fill up Germany’s storage facilities in good time.
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