Germany on Edge as Russian Gas Pipeline Goes Offline for Repair – A key undersea pipeline that transports natural gas from Russia to Germany was shut down on Monday for a 10-day scheduled repair period, putting Europe’s commitment to wean itself off of abundant Russian fuel supplies to the test.
Germany continues to buy 30% of its natural gas from Russia despite sanctions meant to penalize Moscow for invading Ukraine, with much of it going toward supplying its economically significant industrial sector. The Nord Stream 1 pipeline also supplies gas to other countries that are members of the European Union, such as Austria, Italy, and the Czech Republic.
The majority owner of the pipeline, the Russian energy giant Gazprom, curtailed the supply of gas by 60% last month, pushing energy prices to all-time highs. The action has caused Germany to draft a bill to bail out utility firms and put coal-fired power plants back online as well as boost its gas emergency alert level to the second of three stages, the third and final stage of which would allow the government to start gas rationing.
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Berlin officials are now concerned that Gazprom may use the scheduled closure as an opportunity to completely cut off supply, disrupting Germany’s ambitions to replenish its gas storage reserves by November and increase supplies for the winter.
The country’s facilities are currently slightly over 63 percent full, but if Russia were to stop all supplies after the 10-day maintenance period, that goal might be impossible to meet.
Germany’s economy minister, Robert Habeck, said on Monday that the current situation is “quite like nothing we’ve ever had.” “We honestly always have to plan for the worse and hope for the best a little bit.”
