According to data from German operator Gascade, gas deliveries to Russia via the Nord Stream pipeline fell to about 20% of capacity, as announced on Wednesday.
Germany received about 17.3 gigawatt hours (GWh) from Russia between 08:00 and 09:00 (3:00 and 04:00 GWh), averaging about 29 GWh per hour in recent days.
“North Stream I represents about 20% of the pipeline’s maximum capacity of 1.28 million cubic meters (…) per hour since 8:00 am,” said German operator Gascade, who manages the grid in Germany.
The Italian group Eni also announced that it was informed by Gazprom that gas deliveries will be limited to 27 million cubic meters against 34 million “in the last days”.
Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Nord Stream carried around 73 GWh of energy per hour, providing energy to Germany, which is particularly dependent on Russian gas, but also to other European countries in the Baltic Sea.
However, supply fell to 40% of normal in mid-June before a full 10-day maintenance shutdown in July. Since then, streams have resumed.
On Monday, Russian giant Gazprom announced that it will halve its daily deliveries via Nord Stream from Wednesday, citing a turbine maintenance operation.
A Kremlin spokesperson said on Tuesday that the supply disruption was due to Western sanctions against Russia in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. “Without these restrictions, everything would have been completed within the usual time frame (…),” he said.
However, Western countries reject this claim and accuse Moscow of using natural gas as an economic and political weapon.
The conflict is driving gas prices in Europe, which on Tuesday set its highest record since March.
Faced with the threat of pre-winter famine, 27 EU member states agreed to reduce their gas consumption by at least 15% between August 2022 and March 2023 compared to the five-year average for the same period.
source: Noticias
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