According to data from the pipeline company, 59.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas were exported from Russia to Europe by Nord Stream in 2021.
The Russian giant Gazprom announced Wednesday to lower its gas deliveries to Europe by another third via the Nord Stream gas pipeline, claiming to have been forced to stop equipment from the German Siemens, the day after a first drastic reduction. .
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«Gazprom shuts down another Siemens gas turbine at Portovaya compressor station“, where the filling of Nord Stream is done, and whose daily production will increase Thursday from 100 to 67 million cubic meters per day. On Tuesday, Gazprom had already announced a first drop from 167 to 100 million m3, explaining this decision by the lack of Siemens compressors, which prevents it from operating all its gas compression units. This brings to almost 60% the drop in daily supplies via the undersea gas pipeline that connects Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea. If Gazprom justified these reductions by technical reasons, Berlin denounced Wednesday, before the announcement of the second reduction, a “political decisionfrom Moscow, in a context of heightened tensions with Western countries because of the conflict in Ukraine.
An interruption of deliveries to countries that refuse to pay in rubles
Russian gas exports to Europe have been steadily declining since the start of Western sanctions against Moscow, as the European Union seeks to shed its energy dependence on Russia. Gazprom reported on Wednesday that exports to countries outside the Confederation of Independent States, a group of nine former Soviet republics, fell 28.9% from January 1 to June 15 compared to the same period. last year. But Russia’s revenues have not been affected, due to soaring gas prices. The Kremlin never ceases to affirm that the decisions of European leaders affect above all their own populations.
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In recent weeks, Gazprom has interrupted its gas deliveries to several European customers who refused to pay in rubles. In response to the sanctions imposed by the European Union following the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that buyers of Russian gas from countries “unfriendly» pay in rubles from accounts in Russia under penalty of being deprived of supply, despite contracts providing for payments in euros or dollars. However, a number of European customers have refused. The Nord Stream gas pipeline delivers Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, over two sections of 1,224 kilometers each. It was commissioned in 2012, after costing nearly 7.4 billion euros in investment. According to data from the pipeline company, 59.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas were exported from Russia to Europe by Nord Stream in 2021.
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