Habeck fears blockage of Nord Stream gas pipeline

Created: 06/30/2022, 11:02 am

The gas receiving station of the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1 and the transfer station of the long-distance gas pipeline OPAL (Baltic Sea Pipeline Connection Line) in Lubmin.

© Stefan Sauer/dpa

The Federal Minister of Economics speaks of a "quite tense" situation and is audibly concerned about the gas supply in winter.

Munich/Berlin - Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck fears that Russian gas supplies through the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea will be completely absent.

From July 11, there is a threat of "a total blockade of Nord Stream 1," said the Green politician on Thursday at a "sustainability summit" of the "Süddeutsche Zeitung".

That's why it can be really problematic in winter.

The gas supply over the summer is guaranteed.

Russia had already severely curtailed deliveries through Nord Stream, citing technical problems.

Annual maintenance begins on July 11th.

According to Habeck, the pipeline is usually shut down for ten days.

But based on the pattern seen, it wouldn't be "super surprising" if any small part was found.

"And then you say: Yes, we can't turn it on again, now we found something during maintenance and that's it.

So in that respect the situation is definitely tense.”

Storage levels at around 61 percent

The storage would have to be full by winter, two floating terminals for importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Germany would have to be connected.

According to the Federal Network Agency, the current storage levels in Germany are around 61 percent.

After the Russian throttling, 0.3 to 0.5 percent of gas will be stored per day, said Habeck.

That's about half of what happened before Nord Stream 1 was cut.

But there are still significant amounts.

After the reduction in gas supplies by Russia, the federal government declared the alarm level in the gas emergency plan.

"Gas is now a scarce commodity in Germany," Habeck said.

He had launched a package of measures to reduce gas consumption in industry and gas can be stored instead.

dpa