Apart from technological issues brought on by Western sanctions, nothing is blocking Russian gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday, one day before another scheduled maintenance closure.
The pipeline will be shut down for three days starting on Wednesday in order to perform maintenance on a single pumping unit at the Portovaya compressor station, according to Russian energy giant Gazprom.
Whether there are assurances that Gazprom will resume gas flows through Nord Stream 1 after the maintenance was asked of Peskov.
He retorted, “There are assurances that other from technological issues brought on by sanctions, nothing inhibits the shipments.
Europe’s natural gas prices have reached record highs due to a shortage of Russian supplies. Gas has only been pumped through Nord Stream 1 at 20% of its potential due to technical faults.
Moscow’s assertion that turbine issues and sanctions are to blame is rejected by the European Union. As Gazprom prepared to block flows through Nord Stream 1 and reduce exports to one of its major utilities, Engie, France accused Moscow on Tuesday of using energy supply as “a weapon of war.”
According to Peskov, sanctions were placed on the Russian Federation by the European Union, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. These sanctions prevent the Russian Federation from performing routine maintenance and repairs and from legally registering the return of components and assemblies to their respective places of operations.
“There are no additional barriers,” he continued, “for Russia to fulfill its duties.”
On Tuesday morning, the front-month gas contract in Europe was down 3% at 259 euros/MWh, off record highs reached last week but still more than five times levels seen a year ago.
