Reduced Russian gas flow is political, German official says
BERLIN (AP) — Russia's announcement that it would reduce natural gas flows through a key European pipeline by roughly 40% appears to be a political move rather than a result of technical problems, Germany’s vice chancellor said Wednesday.
Russia’s state-controlled energy giant Gazprom also told Italian gas giant Eni that it would reduce gas through a different pipeline by roughly 15% on Wednesday. The reason for the reduction has not been made clear, and the Italian company said it was monitoring the situation.
The reduced flows follow Russia's halt of natural gas supplies to Bulgaria, Poland, Finland, Netherlands, Denmark as Europe works to reduce its dependence on Russian energy amid the war in Ukraine. Gas demand has fallen after the end of the winter heating season, but European utilities are racing to refill storage ahead of next winte r with prices high and supplies uncertain.
While gas storages are refilling well, the cutoffs and reductions come on top of an explosion at a liquefied natural gas terminal in Texas whose exports were largely going to Europe, adding another squeeze to the tight natural gas market, said Simone Tagliapietra, an energy expert at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. He urged Europe “not to be complacent and urgently scale-up coordination" so the continent is “prepared for a possibly difficult winter ahead."
Gazprom said Tuesday that deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Europe would drop after Canadian sanctions over the war prevented German partner Siemens Energy from delivering overhauled equipment.
Siemens Energy said a gas turbine that powers a compressor station on the pipeline had been in service for more than 10 years and taken to Montreal for a scheduled overhaul. But because of sanctions imposed by Canada, the...
