Nord Stream 1 does not resume gas transport - Siemens expresses doubts about Russia's justification

Created: 09/03/2022, 06:31

By: Linus Prien

End point of the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline © IMAGO/ BildFunkMV

Gas will probably no longer flow from the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1.

The reason for the failure of deliveries is an oil leak in the compressor station.

Update from September 2, 10:41 p.m

.: Contrary to what was announced, no gas will flow through the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline from this Saturday.

This was announced by the state-owned company Gazprom on Telegram on Friday evening.

The reason is an oil leak in the Portovaya compressor station.

The gas flow remains stopped until it is eliminated.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Economics confirmed on Friday evening that she had taken note of Gazprom's reports.

She further reported: “We are not commenting on the matter, but we have already seen Russia's unreliability in the past few weeks and accordingly we have continued our measures to strengthen independence from Russian energy imports undeterred and consistently.

As a result, we are now much better prepared than we were a few months ago.”

But no gas through Nord Stream 2: Siemens Energy takes a stand

According to Gazprom, the leak in the compressor station was discovered during maintenance work carried out jointly with experts from Siemens Energy.

The leaked oil was found in several places.

It is not possible to guarantee the safe operation of the last remaining gas turbine there.

It was said that such oil spills had happened in the past.

A letter about the complaints about the Trent 60 unit with the number 24 and about the necessary repairs went to the head of Siemens Energy, Christian Bruch.

Siemens Energy said on request that they had taken note of the latest reports.

"As the manufacturer of the turbines, all we can say is that such a finding does not constitute a technical reason for stopping operations." Normally, such leaks do not affect the operation of a turbine and can be sealed on site - this is a routine procedure as part of maintenance work .

Even in the past, the occurrence of this type of leak has not brought operations to a standstill.

Siemens Energy is currently not commissioned with maintenance work, but is ready, it said.

In the Portovaya compressor station there are also enough other turbines ready for operation of Nord Stream 1.

First report from September 2nd, 8 p.m.:

As the news channel n-tv reported, no gas should flow through the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1 from this Saturday, contrary to what was announced.

This is announced by the state-owned company Gazprom on Telegram.

The reason is an oil leak in the compressor station.

On Friday, delivery quantities as before the current delivery stop were reserved on the website of the operating company Nord Stream from Saturday morning, 2 a.m.

This so-called nomination is advance information for gas network operators.

The data published on Friday initially only lasted until 6 a.m. on Saturday morning.

Nord Stream 1: Initial delivery halt due to maintenance work

Gazprom stopped its deliveries to Germany through Nord Stream 1 on Wednesday morning, according to its own statements due to scheduled maintenance work on a compressor station.

The Russian company sent around 33 million cubic meters of gas through the pipeline every day until Wednesday, which is 20 percent of the possible delivery volume.

Gazprom cites the maintenance of a Siemens turbine as the reason for this reduction, which cannot be delivered to Russia because of Western sanctions.

The Federal Government considers this line of argument to be incomprehensible.

Nord Stream 1: "Clear situation" only Saturday morning

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Economics in Berlin said that there is initial data from the network operators that provide information about the first nominations.

"Nevertheless, we have to advise caution here." Nominations could also be withdrawn.

"A clear state of affairs" will only be available during the course of Saturday morning, said the spokeswoman.

"We are monitoring the situation very closely."

The delivery stop since Wednesday was the second this summer and fuels fears of supply bottlenecks in winter.

The West accuses Moscow of extortion over the energy supply.

After Western sanctions were imposed on Moscow for invading Ukraine, Russia had repeatedly reduced its gas supplies to Europe.

The Russian government also repeated on Friday that gas supplies could be cut off again at any time.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that only one turbine is currently working in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline - "there are no technical reserves".

Therefore, the reliability of “the whole system” is at risk.