According to the Russian state gas company, gas supplies will return to their current level after the maintenance break, i.e. to 20 percent of the pipeline’s capacity.
Russian the state gas company Gazprom cuts off gas supplies in the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany for three days at the turn of the new moon. News agencies, among others, report on the matter Reuters and Bloomberg.
According to Gazprom, gas deliveries through Nord Stream will be interrupted between August 31 and September 2 due to maintenance measures.
According to the company, gas supplies will return to their current level after the maintenance break, if there are no malfunctions in the turbine being serviced.
It would mean that gas supplies would be restored to 33 million cubic meters per day, or about 20 percent of the pipeline’s capacity.
Gazprom began restricting Nord Stream gas flows in mid-June, when it reduced gas flows through the pipeline to 40 percent of normal. Even then, according to Gazprom, the reason for gas flow restrictions was technical.
Germany has repeatedly said that the explanation is not credible. It regards the reduction of gas as a political move by Russia.
In July, Nord Stream was closed for 10 days due to a planned maintenance break. In Europe, it was feared that the gas tap might remain completely closed after the outage, but gas flows continued at the time at a level of 40 percent of normal.
Soon, however, Gazprom reduced the amount of gas coming through the pipeline to its current level, i.e. to 20 percent of its capacity.
Nord Stream the drastic reduction in gas supplies has particularly affected Germany, whose energy system has been built largely on Russian natural gas over the decades.
One of the most visible victims of the situation has been the energy company Uniper, whose main owner is Fortum, which is majority owned by the Finnish state.
Uniper said on Wednesday that it has already made losses of 3.8 billion due to the reduction in gas deliveries, and the amount is currently increasing by around 100 million euros per day.
Towards the end of July, Uniper, Fortum and the German government agreed on a rescue package that was used to stabilize Uniper’s situation. In the package, Fortum’s ownership in Uniper is reduced from 78 percent to 56 percent, and Germany lends Uniper billions.
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