The Russian giant Gazprom announced Wednesday to lower its gas deliveries to Europe by another third by the Nord Stream gas pipeline, claiming to have been forced to stop equipment from the German Siemens, the day after a first drastic reduction. .
“Gazprom stops the operation of another Siemens gas turbine at the Portovaïa compressor station”, where Nord Stream is filled, and whose daily production will drop from 100 to 67 million cubic meters per day on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Gazprom had already announced a first drop from 167 to 100 million m3, explaining this decision by the lack of Siemens compressors, which prevents it from operating all its gas compression units.
This brings to almost 60% the drop in daily supplies via the undersea gas pipeline that links Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
“political decision”
If Gazprom justified these cuts by technical reasons, Berlin denounced Wednesday, before the announcement of the second reduction, a “political decision” of Moscow, in a context of strong tensions with Western countries because of the conflict in Ukraine.
The German government is now accusing the company of seeking to “drive up prices” with this new gas supply restriction.
Russian gas exports to Europe have been steadily declining since the start of Western sanctions against Moscow, as the European Union seeks to shed its energy dependence on Russia.
Gazprom reported on Wednesday that exports to countries outside the Confederation of Independent States, a group of nine former Soviet republics, fell 28.9% from January 1 to June 15 compared to the same period. last year.
But Russia’s revenues have not been affected by soaring gas prices. The Kremlin never ceases to affirm that the decisions of European leaders affect above all their own populations.
In recent weeks, Gazprom has interrupted its gas deliveries to several European customers who refused to pay in rubles.
In response to sanctions imposed by the European Union following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that buyers of Russian gas from “unfriendly” countries pay in rubles from accounts in Russia under risk of being deprived of supplies, despite contracts providing for payments in euros or dollars.
However, a number of European customers have refused.
The Nord Stream gas pipeline delivers Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, in two sections of 1224 kilometers each. It was commissioned in 2012, after costing nearly 7.4 billion euros of investment (9.95 billion Canadian dollars).
According to data from the pipeline company, 59.2 billion m3 of natural gas were exported from Russia to Europe by Nord Stream in 2021.