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The news was made known by the Russian energy giant, Gazprom, which last Wednesday, August 31, closed the gas tap to Europe to carry out “maintenance” for three days. Now the company assures that supply operations will not be resumed on Saturday because an “urgent repair of some key components” is needed. The announcement heightened tension in Europe due to the already complicated energy crisis that the continent is going through on the verge of winter.
Russia has eliminated the deadline of Saturday, September 3, to resume the flow of gas through the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, the most important for Europe, which runs from Russian territory to Germany, passing through the Baltic Sea.
The Russian state energy company had closed the Nord Stream 1 on Wednesday, August 31 for three days for “maintenance” reasons, but only a few hours before the resumption of supply was made official, the Russian company Gazprom posted on social media that it had identified a “malfunction” of a turbine, explaining that Nord Stream 1 would not work unless these faults were eliminated and did not set a new deadline to resume operations with Europe.
However, ‘Siemens Energy’, one of the companies that usually provides maintenance services to the Nord Stream 1 turbines, assured that the leak that was detected should not stop the operation of the pipeline. He also added that there are other additional turbines available to keep the pipeline running.
“Such leaks do not normally affect the operation of a turbine and can be sealed on site. It is a routine procedure within the scope of maintenance work,” the company noted.
“Russia uses energy as an economic weapon”
After the West has imposed dozens of sanctions on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the constant supply cuts and the closure of the gas pipeline for maintenance have been pointed out by Europe and the United States as a pretext for Moscow to pressure the Western bloc and in retaliation for sanctions.
The cuts by Russia began in mid-June, and in recent weeks the Nord Stream 1 has been operating at only 20% of its capacity.
“Unfortunately, it is not surprising that Russia continues to use energy as a weapon against European consumers,” a spokesman for the National Security Council told the Reuters news agency.
The White House, leaders of the European Commission and Canada have also agreed to point out the Russian government for using energy as an “economic weapon against the West”, but the Kremlin has denied the accusations and has always affirmed that the maintenance that have stopped supplies are “completely necessary.”
Energy solutions before winter
Since Moscow began cutting off gas supplies to Europe, several European utilities have started looking to diversify energy to prepare for heating demands in the winter season.
Some of those solutions have been the purchase of liquefied gas at high cost, the reactivation of nuclear plants that were destined to be shut down, or requests for additional supply through pipelines from Norway and Azerbaijan.
Another of the last-minute solutions adopted by the European Union (EU) was to reach a storage target of 80% of the gas by November 1. The block reached the goal and countries like Germany, which has its reserves at 84% and that highly depends on Russian gas, assured this week that “we are ready to face the energy crisis because our situation is not the same as it was a year ago and we have full reserves,” according to the words of Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz.
Germany itself and other countries such as Spain, Belgium and Italy have additionally implemented energy saving plans in which they define certain levels and hours for the use of electricity and gas. And although many of these measures apply mainly to businesses and industries, the streets of its main cities have been running at half speed, with many of them in darkness due to energy rationing in public lighting.
Natural gas is used to power industry, heat homes and offices, and generate electricity.
EU countries have been bracing for the possibility of Russia halting deliveries altogether, after Gazprom cut flows first in June, then again in July, and began making supply cuts and pipeline maintenance on a regular basis. reiterated.
With AP and Reuters
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