Europeans are again on alert as deliveries via the Nord Stream gas pipeline were interrupted on Wednesday August 31 for maintenance work, scheduled until Saturday. The works “planned on a gas compressor station have started”, announced the Russian group Gazprom in a statement posted on his Telegram account. The flow of gas effectively fell to zero in the early hours of the morning, confirmed data posted online by the European gas transport network Entsog and by the site of the company Nord Stream.
This Interruption comes as Gazprom has cut Nord Stream deliveries by 80% over the past few months, putting energy at the center of a tussle between Moscow and Westerners who regularly accuse Russia of using the gas “like a weapon”. For the boss of the German Network Agency, Klaus Müller, the work that is beginning is thus “technically incomprehensible”. Experience shows that Russia “takes a political decision after every so-called ‘maintenance'”he observed.
Asked about the resumption of flows at the end of the three-day break, the spokesperson for the Russian government, Dmitry Peskov, assured “that apart from the technical problems caused by the sanctions, nothing interferes with the deliveries”. However, Western capitals “imposed sanctions against Russia, which do not allow normal maintenance and repair work to be carried out.”
The flow of Russian gas to France will be completely dried up on Thursday, after the announcement by the Russian giant of the total suspension on this date of its deliveries to the French group Engie. The president of the Energy Regulation Commission (CRE), however, said she was confident “on the ability to spend the winter in France without Russian gas”, regarding supply. On LCI, Emmanuelle Wargon however warned of a possible effect on prices. “In terms of supply, volumes, we are rather confident about the ability to spend the winter in France without Russian gas”she continued.
It won’t change “luckily not much” for consumers, estimated Emmanuelle Wargon, emphasizing the effort to diversify supplies and the good filling of storage. Asked about a possible increase in energy prices in 2023 for households, she felt that it was “Too early to say”.