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There hasn't been any gas here since Monday morning.
The operator of the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1 has interrupted the gas supply.
The reason for this is annual maintenance work.
These should be completed within ten days.
It is unclear whether gas will actually flow through the line again afterwards.
Klaus Müller, President of the Federal Network Agency
“Is it maintenance that is over after ten days – or sooner or later?
Unfortunately we have to wait and see.
I don't think we'll find out much sooner than the day before either."
The Russian state-owned company Gazprom had already severely curtailed gas deliveries to Germany in June.
According to the Federal Network Agency, the Baltic Sea line was only used to about 40% of its capacity.
The throttling was also justified by the lack of a turbine, which was in Canada for repairs.
The Canadian government announced over the weekend that it would send the turbine to Russia via Germany – despite the sanctions.
Klaus Müller, President of the Federal Network Agency
»But should there be a gas emergency, we would want to make differentiated decisions with the major gas purchasers.
However, due to an IT platform, we can only do that from October.
We would take into account: the economic damage, the economic consequences, the impact on the supply chain, the social dimension.
We will then be able to take everything into account from autumn.
Until then, unfortunately, we could only make decisions on a pro rata basis, i.e. on a percentage basis, or selectively with individual measures.«
Meanwhile, Ukraine is warning that Russia could be trying to blackmail Germany into commissioning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which has been controversial for years.
According to this, Russia could pretend that the maintenance work on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline had revealed a greater need for repairs, and that the tube was no longer usable for the time being.
Nord Stream 2, on the other hand, is technically operational.
However, at the end of February the federal government stopped the approval process for the second Baltic Sea pipeline for political reasons.
