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Russian gas deliveries via Nord Stream were suspended for three days on Wednesday. The gas pipeline that directly connects the Siberian fields to northern Germany is officially under maintenance. But this new stoppage of supplies further increases the mistrust between Moscow and the West.
It’s a new round in the arm wrestling game around energy. Since this Wednesday morning, Russia has interrupted the supply of natural gas to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline.
The gas pipeline is officially stopped until Saturday 1:00 UT for maintenance work. Gazprom assures us: these maintenance works must be carried out ” every 1000 hours “. An argument that struggles to convince in Berlin. The head of the German network agency believes that this operation is “ technically incomprehensible “. And to observe: Russia makes a political decision after each so-called maintenance. »
Uncertainty
The uncertainty is all the greater in Lubmin, on the Baltic Sea port where the gas pipeline ends, as this time, unlike the work in July, this operation was not planned for a long time.
However, Dmitri Peskov, the spokesman for the Russian government, maintains that the sanctions against Moscow “ do not allow normal maintenance and repair work to be carried out », and in July, at the end of the maintenance, the tap had only been reopened with a limited flow: 20% of the normal capacity of Nord Stream.
However, the German authorities want to be a little more reassuring for the energy supply this winter. The storage target set by Berlin for the month of October should be reached at the beginning of September.
►Also read : Gazprom will suspend its gas deliveries to the French group Engie from September 1