Gas: Nord Stream stopped "completely" until the repair of a turbine, announces Gazprom

Gazprom abruptly changed its mind.

The reopening of the valves on the Nord Stream gas pipeline to Western Europe was announced.

It was to intervene around 2 a.m. Saturday at 20% of normal capacity, the same level as before the maintenance work.

The Kremlin, however, said Friday that the operation of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which supplies Europe with gas, was "threatened" by a shortage of spare parts due to sanctions against Moscow for its offensive in Ukraine.

"Technically, there are no reserves, only one turbine is working," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"This single turbine must be serviced every 1,000 hours of operation," he continued, assuring that it was not Gazprom's fault.

Friday evening, the gas giant highlighted the “oil leaks” in this turbine during this maintenance operation.

"Until the repair (...) the transport of gas via Nord Stream is completely suspended", indicated the group.

The energy at the heart of an arm wrestle

In particular, Russia claims that the sanctions prevent the return of a Siemens turbine that had been sent to Canada for repair.

Germany, where the turbine is located, ensures on the contrary that it is Moscow which is blocking the return of this key piece.

In the context of the war in Ukraine, energy is at the heart of a showdown between Moscow and the West, who regularly accuse Russia of using gas “as a weapon”.

A German official had called this week's interruption "technically incomprehensible".

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Gazprom, which has just achieved a record turnover, has continued to reduce the quantities delivered by Nord Stream in recent months to Europe.

In July, the company had already carried out ten days of maintenance work on the gas pipeline which had then been restarted but with a further drop in deliveries.

Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Nord Stream transported around a third of the 153 billion m3 of gas purchased annually by the EU.

Germany exports part of the volumes arriving on its territory to the continent.

To compensate for the missing quantities, European countries are trying to find other suppliers and reduce their consumption against a backdrop of skyrocketing gas prices on the markets.