Russia cuts the Nord Stream gas pipeline for maintenance for the second time this summer

The European Union is skeptical about a new complete cut of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, the second this summer.

The Russian state giant Gazprom has decided to completely stop the supply to undertake an unforeseen review that the president of the gas regulator in Germany, the German Federal Network Agency, Klaus Mueller, has classified as “incomprehensible”.

According to Moscow, which warned of the new technical stoppage just a few weeks ago, the only compressor unit that is still operating after its dispute over the sanctions needs to be supervised "every 1,000 hours."

"The supply through Nord Stream has been completely stopped, today the scheduled preventive work begins on the gas compression unit," the Russian export monopoly announced on Wednesday morning through Telegram.

In theory, the revision of the only compressor unit of the Russian Portovaya pumping station that is still active will last from this August 31 until the early hours of September 3.

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The gas pipeline has been operating at 20% of its total capacity since July 27 due to a dispute between Gazprom and the European Union and Canada over sanctions introduced as a result of the war in Ukraine.

The North American country initially retained a turbine that Siemens repaired there due to the restrictions that Ottawa has imposed on the Russian gas company.

After agreeing to the part being sent to Germany, it was Russia itself that prevented its transfer to the pumping station until it received guarantees that it would not be sanctioned.

a blacklist

This is the second total stoppage in gas supply this summer.

Nord Stream activity was suspended for 11 days, between July 11 and 21, in another scheduled review.

That month, European fears were confirmed: although the supply did not completely disappear after those maintenance tasks, the pumping was drastically cut with respect to 60% of its previous reduced capacity, with the excuse that a second Portovaya compressor unit needed revisions .

Beyond Nord Stream, a gas pipeline that directly links Russia with Germany through the Baltic Sea, the gas war continues with another European country on Gazprom's blacklist.

Moscow announced on Monday that the French gas company Engie will not receive another molecule of gas from September 1 due to its refusal to abide by the new payment system devised by the Kremlin to circumvent sanctions.

Vladimir Putin decreed in March that gas bills must be paid in rubles in response to sanctions on his financial system, and his central bank devised a mechanism to convert existing euro and dollar contracts into the Russian currency.

In particular, Gazprom's clients have to open an account with its banking subsidiary, Gazprombank, and make the payment there in foreign currency.

Once this step has been taken, the entity changes them in the Russian market and transfers the money to the gas company.

"At the end of the business day on August 30, Gazprom Export has not received full payment for the gas supplied to Engie in July, according to existing contracts," the Russian company announced.

The French gas company is not the first.

Other countries such as Finland and Poland rejected this system months ago because they considered that this payment through third parties meant a breach of what was signed in their supply contracts and placed them in legal limbo in the event of a claim.

Gazprom's response was to turn off the tap completely.

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