After a 10-day shutdown, the infrastructure operator said it continued to pump gas to Europe through Russia’s largest pipeline on Thursday, easing Europe’s fears of immediate winter supply after President Vladimir Putin warned that flows could be further cut or halted.
Supply via Nord Stream 1, which runs under the Baltic Sea to Germany, was halted for maintenance on 11 July, but even before that halted, up to 40% of the pipeline’s capacity was cut off in a dispute sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. .
Nord Stream figures showed that Thursday’s streams had returned to 40% capacity.
Supply cuts hampered Europe’s efforts to replenish gas storage for the winter, increased the risk of rationing, and dealt another blow to fragile economic growth if Moscow further restricted flows in retaliation for Western sanctions on the Ukraine war.
“We are in the process of restarting gas transport. It may take several hours to reach the specified transport volumes,” a spokesperson for the pipeline operator previously told Reuters.
According to data from the Nord Stream 1 website, physical streams were 29,289,682 kilowatt-hours between 07:00 and 08:00 (local time), returning to the pre-maintenance stream level.
Klaus Mueller, head of Germany’s grid regulator, said the resumption of flows up to 40% of capacity is not a sign that tensions are easing. “Unfortunately, political uncertainty and the 60% cutback in mid-June remain,” he wrote on Twitter.
Gazprom, which has a monopoly on Russian gas pipeline exports, did not respond to a request for comment.
To try to avoid a winter supply crisis, the European Commission has proposed a voluntary target for all EU countries to reduce gas use by 15% from August to March for the same period in 2016-2021. The commission’s proposal would allow Brussels to make the target mandatory in the event of a supply emergency.
“Energy as a Weapon”
Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday, adding that Europe must now prepare for the worst.
The Kremlin says Russia is a reliable energy supplier and blames sanctions for the reduced flows.
Despite the global gas market tightening even before the Ukrainian crisis, Europe is looking for alternative supplies as fuel demand has recovered from the pandemic-induced slowdown.
source: Noticias
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