Russia on Wednesday cut gas supplies to Europe through a major pipeline, escalating an economic battle between Moscow and Brussels and raising the prospect of recession and energy rationing in some of the region’s richest countries.
According to Russian energy giant Gazprom, the power outage via Nord Stream 1 is for maintenance and means no gas will flow to Germany between 10:00 GMT on August 31 and 01:00 GMT on September 3. .
Data from the pipeline operator’s website showed the flow dropped to zero between 0200 and 0300 GMT on Wednesday.
European governments fear Moscow will extend the blackout in response to Western sanctions imposed over its attack on Ukraine, and have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of using energy resources as a “weapon of war.” Moscow denies this.
Increased restrictions on Europe’s gas supply will exacerbate an energy crisis that has already seen wholesale gas prices rise by more than 400% since August last year, creating a painful cost-of-living crisis for consumers and higher costs for companies and forced Governments spend billions of dollars to reduce the burden.
And unlike last month’s 10-day pipeline maintenance, the new maintenance was only announced less than two weeks ago.
Moscow has already cut supply through Nord Stream 1 to 40 percent of capacity in June and 20 percent in July, citing maintenance problems and sanctions that it says are preventing the return and installation of equipment.
Gazprom said the new shutdown was necessary to carry out repairs on the pipeline’s only remaining compressor.
Since the start of what Moscow calls “special military operations” in Ukraine, Russia has completely cut off supplies to Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Poland and reduced flows through other pipelines.
Source: Lebanon Debate
