Russian gas giant Gazprom announced on Monday a further reduction in gas supplies via the Nord Stream pipelineto 33 million cubic meters per day, as of July 27, due to the need to stop another turbine due to its technical condition, as occurred weeks ago.
“As of 7:00 Moscow time (4:00 GMT) the daily productivity of the Portovaya pumping station will be 33 million cubic meters per day“, reported the company on its Telegram channel.
Gazprom linked this new reduction to the technical state of a turbine after the deadline for a new repair, as stipulated by technical standards. Germany and Canada have agreed to bring the equipment to Russia, but the turbine has not yet been delivered.
For the German government, it is a “political” decision and a “pretext” to put pressure on the West in the context of the Ukraine conflict. “According to our information, there is no technical reason to reduce deliveries,” a spokeswoman for the German Economy Ministry told AFP.
In mid-June, Gazprom reduced its gas supply capacity to 33%, up to 67 million cubic meters per day, talso due to the need to stop a turbine for repairs, and in July it stopped pumping for “planned maintenance work”.
After a ten-day break that ended on July 21, Nord Stream started with a capacity of 40%which will be reduced by half starting this Wednesday.
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Nord Stream, with a capacity of 167 million m3 according to Gazprom, connects Russia with Germany across the Baltic Sea. It is a strategic infrastructure for the supply of gas to Europe, highly dependent on Russian energy resources.
Western countries accuse Moscow of using its energy as a weapon in response to sanctions adopted for the invasion.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.