The Russian gas company Gazprom announced today (Fri) that it is stopping until further notice all gas supplies to Europe through the Nord Stream pipeline, despite plans to resume supplies tomorrow. The company’s announcement exacerbates the concerns in Germany, Italy and other European countries about the situation this coming winter, against the background of an acute shortage of gas for heating homes and industry.
The gas reserves in Germany are now 80% full, an amount that according to estimates will not be enough for more than two months of consumption. If the shortage worsens, the German government will budget gas for industry, which will be forced to reduce or stop production.
Gazprom’s announcement was published the evening before the planned resumption of gas flow. To this day, the streaming was stopped due to “infrastructure works” surprisingly and for three days. The German chancellor and the German economy minister said in advance that the Russians might stop the supply altogether, and the German government accused Moscow of using gas as a weapon in response to its support for Ukraine.
The company said this evening that it had located an “oil leak” near the pipeline infrastructure, and that it was suspending the transfer until the situation was resolved, but did not say when this would be possible. “The gas supply will be completely stopped until the deficiencies are corrected,” it was reported.
The Russian authorities said that it is now “unsafe” to transport the gas using the existing infrastructure. Until last week, Russia only flowed 20% of the normal capacity, which caused growing nervousness in the German industry and fear of an economic crisis that would arise as a result of gas shortages and the surge in energy prices. The German government has announced in recent days that it will consider extending the operation of two nuclear power plants beyond the end of 2022, in order to supply a small part of the country’s electricity. The German government also hopes that the public and industry will mobilize to reduce about 20% of electricity consumption.
Germany could hypothetically now receive natural gas for heating through existing LNG gasification terminals in the Netherlands or Poland (which itself is in desperate need of gas, after the confiscation of its own Russian gas purchases with the start of the war against Ukraine). It is rapidly building terminals in its territory, but this will take at least a year and a half. “We are more prepared than we were,” said the head of the national gas infrastructure in Germany, “but now it depends on each of us.”