The Russian gas company Gazprom reduced this Tuesday “for technical reasons” the supply to Germany corresponding to a fifth of the capacity of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, according to data published on the company’s official website.
The reduction in the flow of Russian fuel began at 09:00 in Moscow (06:00 in Lisbon) and according to information from the portal, the daily volume of supply to Germany, via Nord Stream, will be 33 million cubic meters.
According to the German federal network agency (Bundesbetzagentur), the cut that occurs as of this Tuesday is a Moscow’s “war strategy” and rejected the technical justification referred to by Gazprom.
Moscow’s explanations for the 20% reduction (sending capacity) “are not realistic,” Bundesnetzagentur chief Klaus Muller told Deutschlandfunk radio.
The German authority confirmed this Tuesday morning that there is an expected reduction and that it corresponds to “half” of what was being supplied in recent months.
Specifically, from 6:00 a.m. (Lisbon time) 1.28 cubic meters of gas circulate per hour, as Gazprom had announced, which justifies the reduction with maintenance work in addition to breakdowns in a turbine.
The cut comes after the service was resumed last week after 10 days of total interruption due, according to Moscow, to maintenance services.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Economy Minister Robert Habeck said “there are no obstacles” of a technical nature to the regular flow of Russian gas through the Nord Stream.
Habeck has accused Moscow of using the gas supply as a “weapon of war”.
Last February, when Russia’s new military campaign against Ukraine began, Russian supplies corresponded to 55% of the total gas imports received by Germanyfigure that at the end of June was reduced to 26%.
Habeck maintains the objective of achieving the storage of 95% of the deposits before November 1 to guarantee energy security during the coming winter.
German warehouses are currently at 64.4% of capacity, according to the government.
Source: Observadora
