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image source, Gazprom
Gazprom published the photo of an oil leak.
The pipeline through which Russia sends gas to Germany will not reopen as scheduled on Saturday, Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom said.
The firm said it had found an oil leak from a turbine in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, meaning it would be shut down indefinitely.
The pipeline has been closed for the past three days for what Gazprom described as “maintenance works“.
The news comes amid growing fears that citizens of the European Union will not be able to pay the cost of heating this winter.
Los energy prices have skyrocketed since Russia invaded Ukraine and the shortage of supplies might increase them even more.
Europe is attempting to disconnect from Russian power in an effort to reduce Moscow’s ability to finance the war, but the transition may not come quickly enough.
Moscow denies using the energy supplies as an economic weapon in retaliation for Western sanctions imposed following the invasion of Ukraine.
He has blamed sanctions on delay routine maintenance of Nord Stream 1but the EU says this is a pretext.
Germany’s grid regulator said the country is now better prepared for the cutoff of Russian gas supplies, but urged citizens and businesses to cut consumption.
price limit
Gazprom’s announcement came shortly following G7 nations agreed to cap the price of Russian oil in support of Ukraine.
The G7 (Group of Seven) is made up of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
image source, EPA
Gazprom headquarters in Saint Petersburg.
The introduction of a price cap means that countries that sign up to the policy will be able to buy only Russian seaborne oil and oil products that are sold at or below the cap price.
However, Russia says that it will not export to countries that apply this limit.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline runs from the Russian coast near St. Petersburg to northeastern Germany and can transport up to 170 million cubic meters of gas per day. It is owned and operated by Nord Stream AG, whose majority shareholder is Gazprom.
Germany had also previously supported the construction of a parallel gas pipeline, the Nord Stream 2, but the project was halted following Russia invaded Ukraine.
Gazprom said the fault had been detected at the Portovaya compressor station, and the inspection was carried out together with workers from Siemens, the German firm that maintains the turbine.
He said repairing oil leaks in key engines was only possible in specialist workshops, which had been hampered by Western sanctions.
However, Siemens itself said: “Such leaks do not normally affect the operation of a turbine. and can be sealed on site. It is a routine procedure within the scope of maintenance work.”
This is not the first time since the invasion that the Nord Stream 1 pipeline has been shut down.
In July, Gazprom cut off supplies completely for 10 days, citing “a maintenance break.” It restarted once more 10 days later, but at a greatly reduced level.
Speaking to the BBC from the Swiss capital Bern, economist and energy analyst Cornelia Meyer said the gas shutdown tenderon a big impact on employment and prices.
“That really has huge ramifications for gas in Europe, which is regarding four times more expensive than it was a year ago and this cost of living crisis is really going to skyrocket because it’s not just gas,” he said.
“The gas becomes fertilizer and is used in many industrial processes, so it will affect jobs and costs.”
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