Gas stop: crisis summit with corporate bosses in Scholz' chancellery

Created: 07/12/2022Updated: 07/12/2022 10:15 am

By: Lisa Mayerhofer, Thomas Schmidtutz

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline has been shut down for maintenance since Monday morning.

It is unclear whether Russia will open the gas tap again afterwards.

The news in the ticker.

• Federal Ministry of Economics: Pipeline

  Nord Stream 1

  is shut down - "This means that no more gas flows."

• Federal Network Agency: Klaus Müller, chief of the authorities , is skeptical about

  gas supply

  - it is unclear how Russia will behave after maintenance.

• Gazprom

  : Russian gas company continues to throttle gas supplies to Europe.

  After Italy, hardly any gas arrives in Austria either.

• This 

  news ticker

   about the maintenance work on Nord Stream 1 is continuously updated.

Update, July 11, 10:51 p.m .:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has sharply criticized the planned delivery of a serviced Russian turbine for the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline.

“If a terrorist state can enforce such an exemption from sanctions, what exemptions does it want tomorrow or the day after?

This question is very dangerous," Zelenskyy said in a video message on Monday.

"And dangerous not only for Ukraine, but also for all countries of the democratic world."

The Russian state-owned company Gazprom significantly reduced the delivery volume through Nord Stream 1 in June and referred to the missing turbine, which was in Canada for repairs.

A government spokeswoman said on Monday in Berlin that the delivery of the turbine would not fall under the EU sanctions because, with good reason, they were not aimed at gas transit.

Zelenskyy said the decision to "exception sanctions" was perceived in Moscow as a "manifestation of weakness".

"That's their logic.

And now there is no doubt that Russia will try not only to limit gas supplies to Europe as much as possible, but to completely stop them at the most acute moment," said the President of Ukraine.

"We have to prepare for that now, that's being provoked now."

Update, July 11, 2:39 p.m.

– Siemens Energy wants to bring the turbine for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, which is being serviced in Canada, “to its place of use as quickly as possible”.

The Canadian government's political decision is a "necessary and important first step for the export license," a spokesman said on Monday when asked.

"Our experts are currently working flat out on all other formal approvals and logistics," it said.

Siemens Energy did not provide any further information on the time horizon for the delivery.

The device in question is a so-called aeroderivative gas turbine.

In view of their smaller size, these can also be transported by plane if necessary.

Gas stop: Scholz drums up group bosses in the Chancellery – Italy and Austria are also affected

Update, July 11, 2:22 p.m.

– Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) spoke to the CEOs of German companies about the feared problems with the energy supply.

Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) also took part in the two-hour discussion on Monday in the Chancellery, explained government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.

Restrictions in the supply chains caused by the Russian war in Ukraine and the corona pandemic were also an issue.

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Scholz and Habeck had shown their determination to "resolutely continue" the course of an accelerated energy transition and to ensure that Germany is less dependent on individual energy suppliers.

Among other things, the companies described the special challenges posed by high inflation and high energy prices, Hebestreit explained.

Gas stop: Putin is serious - Austria is now getting even less gas

Update, July 11, 1:35 p.m.

– After Italy, the Russian gas giant Gazprom has also further reduced its deliveries to Austria.

The Austrian OMV OMV announced on Monday that Gazprom had informed it that around 70 percent less gas was arriving in Baumgarten near the Slovakian border than ordered.

In mid-June, Gazprom had already reduced deliveries to Austria by half.

The Italian energy supplier Eni announced on Monday morning that less gas was arriving in the country from Russia.

The amount fell by around a third compared to the previous days.

Gazprom had already reduced its deliveries to Italy, Austria and France in mid-June.

The Russian energy company switched off the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which runs to Lubmin on the Baltic coast, on Monday morning for maintenance work.

Austria and Italy receive a small portion of their Russian natural gas via Nord Stream 1. The larger portion comes via the Transgas pipeline, which runs through Ukraine and Slovakia.

Gas stop: Nord Stream 1 completely shut down - Putin also throttles deliveries to Italy

Update, July 11, 10:45 a.m.

– The gas supply situation is also getting worse in Italy.

The Russian state-owned company Gazprom has reduced gas deliveries to Italy by around a third, wrote the Italian energy supplier Eni on Monday.

Instead of the usual 32 million cubic meters per day, 21 million cubic meters per day are expected to be delivered on Monday.

Since the war of aggression broke out in Ukraine, Italy's government under Prime Minister Mario Draghi has wanted to become independent of Russian gas supplies.

The country with almost 60 million inhabitants obtains a large part of its gas imports from Russia.

The Italian government therefore concluded new agreements with other gas suppliers, such as Azerbaijan, Qatar and Algeria.

Italy has since also bought two terminals for the storage and regasification of liquefied natural gas (LNG) through its gas network operator Snam.

Update from July 11, 9:49 a.m .:

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline was shut down on Monday morning for regular maintenance work.

This was announced by a spokeswoman for Nord Stream AG in Switzerland.

According to the company, mechanical parts and automatic systems are checked.

The Federal Ministry of Economics in Berlin confirmed that Nord Stream 1 was shut down.

This also applies to the arrival point in Lubmin on the Baltic Sea coast.

"With that, no more gas flows."

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline has been supplying Russian gas to Germany for around ten years.

The maintenance work had been announced by the Russian side.

The federal government expects around ten days of work.

At the same time, the Federal Network Agency and the Ministry of Economic Affairs recently expressed concerns that Russia would then not be able to turn on the gas tap again.

Russia had already severely curtailed gas supplies in mid-June because of a defective turbine.

Canada approved the export of a repaired turbine over the weekend, which should solve the problem.

However, the German government had doubted the Russian arguments in connection with the turbine defect from the start.

Because of the war of aggression in Ukraine, Germany is increasingly trying to become independent of Russian energy supplies.

Maintenance work on Nord Stream 1: Müller warns of a gas emergency

Update from July 11, 9:45 a.m .:

The President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, said on Monday that it remained unclear how Russia would continue to behave after the ten-day period.

There are "very different signals" from Moscow, including very "martial announcements," he said in ZDF's "Morgenmagazin".

"Honestly, no one knows." If there were no deliveries from Russia at all, Germany would have to prepare for a gas emergency.

Savings on gas are of crucial importance, said Müller.

"Everything" must now be done for this.

This also applies to private households.

"If 40 million people did that, then we would also have a significant effect for Germany."

Nord Stream 1: Industry must also prepare for the gas emergency

Update from July 11, 9:40 a.m.:

The industry must also prepare for a gas emergency.

In addition, there would be measures such as the filling of gas storage facilities and the construction of liquid gas terminals.

It would be "good" if Germany already had "one or two" such LNG terminals this winter.

According to Nord Stream AG on Monday, gas flow through the pipeline will be throttled “within a few hours” of the start of maintenance work.

These are usually carried out in the summer each year when the demand for gas is low.

The work usually lasted between ten and 14 days.