The Nord Stream gas pipeline linking Russia with Germany restarted on Thursday after ten days of maintenance, the company of the same name that manages the equipment said.
“It works,” said a spokesman for the Nord Stream company, without specifying how much gas was being delivered. The real data will only be known during the day. The German government feared that this pipeline would not be reopened by Moscow after this work.
According to data transmitted by Gazprom to Gascade, the German grid operator, the pipeline should deliver 530 GWh during the day. This is only “30%” of its capacity, the president of the German Network Agency, Klaus Müller, commented on Twitter on Thursday.
It would also be ten points less than before the works. Arguing that there are no turbines under maintenance in Canada, Gazprom has already reduced deliveries via Nord Stream to 40% of capacity since mid-June.
A Turbine Case
The Russian gas giant Gazprom had assured that it could not guarantee the resumption of deliveries through this gas pipeline in maintenance until Thursday morning.
The group invoked the absence of this turbine, necessary according to the company to operate a compressor station. A “pretext”, according to Berlin, which denounces “political” decisions.
Therefore, Germany was suspended from Moscow’s decision to restart the pipeline, after this long-planned maintenance work. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has blew hot and cold on the prospects for Nord Stream in the coming weeks.
He hinted that the pipeline could be restarted on Thursday morning, but that if Russia does not receive the missing turbine, it would be running at 20% capacity next week. Because, according to the Russian president, a second turbine must in turn undergo maintenance at the end of July.
Source: BFM TV
