Editor TLN
BERLIN, July 21. (DPA/EP) –
The Russian gas company Gazprom has restored this Thursday the gas supply through the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline after it had been stopped for ten days for maintenance work, as reported by a spokesman for Nord Stream AG to the German agency DPA .
Gazprom announced on July 11 the interruption of the flow of gas through the gas pipeline linking Russia and northern Germany, alleging delays in repair works. Moscow blamed Western sanctions for the delays, an argument rejected by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
German authorities feared that the Kremlin would use the Nord Stream 1 outage to blackmail the European Union. In fact, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed last Tuesday to launch the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to increase gas supply to Europe.
“We have another route prepared: it is the Nord Stream 2. It can be launched,” Putin said when talking about the possibilities to solve the energy crisis in Europe, as reported by the TASS news agency.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, assured that Russia was using energy “as a weapon”, and urged the Twenty-seven to “be prepared” and save gas for “a safe winter”.
“Russia is blackmailing us, Russia is using energy as a weapon. Therefore, whether the cuts are partial or total, Europe needs to be prepared,” Von der Leyen proclaimed.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Russian state company assured that it had no documentary evidence of the delivery by Siemens of the gas turbine necessary for the Portovaya compression station, in the Baltic Sea, recalling its direct impact on the “safe operation” of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
“Gazprom has not yet received any official documents from Siemens to supply a gas turbine engine for Portovaya CS under the Canadian and EU sanctions,” the Russian company said, stressing that it again asked Siemens to provide such documents.
At the beginning of July, the Canadian government announced that it would deliver the turbine to Germany, necessary to transport gas by Nord Stream from Russia and whose return had been temporarily suspended as a result of the sanctions imposed on Moscow for the war in Ukraine.
Canadian authorities specified that the part, reconditioned at a Siemens plant in Montreal, would be delivered to German workers and not directly to Russia, as originally planned.
