The Nord Stream pipeline, which supplies gas to Russia next in Europe, will not resume work in court
- Alexey Kalmykov
- BBC
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Rehearsal of morbidity in Europe from the coming Russian winter as a result of monitoring gas obstruction. On the night of Saturday, after a three-day preventive maintenance, Gazprom was supposed to turn on the only Nord Stream unit remaining in service and resume delivery through the main gas pipeline to the EU, but this did not happen.
On Friday the company announcedthat, during a pre-launch technical readiness check, an oil leak was found in the pipeline, which did not allow “to ensure a safe, trouble-free gas turbine engine leak.” A message about this was sent to the Siemens company, together with which verification work was carried out, which joined the representatives of Gazprom.
No new deadlines for fires in June (and no timeframe at all for solving a discovered technical problem) at Gazprom in June. When Europe is now waiting for gas proposals is unknown.
The next shutdown was supposed to happen no later than the October deviation, when 1000 hours had elapsed before the next scheduled maintenance work on the Siemens turbine.
Siemens Energy said that the elimination of the oil leak, which was announced by Gazprom, does not require the shutdown of the turbine.
The Kremlin, which uses far-fetched technical pretexts, has deprived the EU of gas for the heating season and forced it to ease sanctions imposed for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
Russia replies that the West is to blame, accidents prevent Gazprom from servicing turbines and maintaining the gas pipeline in working order. Surprises can be expected at any moment, a Kremlin spokesman said Friday.
“There are no technological reserves, only one turbine is working. Think about it,” Dmitry Peskov answered a question about the likelihood of new repairs and shutdowns.
The EU no longer believes in the probability of a probability from Russia and, probably, in a gas blockade. He does not choose quickly from Russia, but he is waiting for the expected plan while he is going to save: dim the lights, screw on the battery and, in a pinch, consumer goods so that the population does not freeze.
And on Friday, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the EU was thinking about launching a cartel of 27 connecting countries with a population of 450 million people, which could set a price limit for the purchase of Russian gas, following the example of the G7 ceiling for Russian oil.
War of Survival
After the February invasion of Ukraine, Russian leader Vladimir Putin turned the gas valve even tighter and confronted Europe with a decades-long energy crisis of flesh proportions.
Before the war, Russian imports covered about 40% of European gas consumption. Now this share has decreased to 25%, since current supplies do not exceed the average volumes over the past five years.
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Basically, wholesale gas prices have already skyrocketed 10 times, retail prices by 1.5-2 times. Factories are closed, and the population is horrified by the coming winter, heavy bills for electricity and gas.
The Kremlin arises because of the technical reasons for the reduction of stocks. Turbines must be in working condition, reminiscent of Gazprom. Every 1000 hours, instructions are required: inspection and cleaning of the body, preventive maintenance of safety valves, oil supply systems, regulation of air flow and removal of combustion gases.
A thousand hours is approximately 42 days.
All this time, the main remaining Russian gas pipelines in Europe will operate at only 20% capacity.
Three years ago, Gazprom supplied Europe with up to 500 million cubic meters of gas per day. By May of this year, deliveries had halved to 250 million, and over the summer they were recorded twice more – to 115 million in August. Exports in Europe, which occurred during the Nord Stream shutdown for preventive maintenance, fell to a historic low: about 80 million cubic meters per day.
Even with EU countries expanding ahead of schedule, replenishing underground gas storage by up to 80% and currently a quarter above past levels, only a very warm winter will do without rolling blackouts.
This problem will not end – in order to replenish stocks by the next heating season, storage facilities by the end of March must be filled by 40%.
The gas war between Russia and Europe is in full swing.