Russian company Gazprom has announced that gas supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany would be reduced to only 20 percent of the capacity. This happens right after Siemens finally delivered transport documents for the Nord Stream turbine that had been stuck in Canada for weeks.
Gazprom will now halt one more Nord Stream turbine at its Portovaya compressor station from July 27, “taking into account the technical conditions of the engine.”
Bloomberg energy correspondent Javier Blas commented:
“With Nord Stream 1 flowing at just 20% of capacity from July 27, Germany will NOT have enough natural gas to make it throughout the whole winter **unless big demand reductions are implemented**. Berlin will need to activate stage 3 of its gas emergency program”.
In case Russian gas flows through the Nord Stream pipeline remain low, Germany will not be able to fill the reservoirs to 95% in November, as targeted by the government, Germany’s BNetzA warned.
As a result, European (TTF) natural gas prices spiked 10%.
Tom Marzec-Manser, Head of Gas Analytics at ICIS, commented:
“A protracted period of 33mcm/d flows on NordStream1 will likely limit Europe’s ability to inject adequate #natgas vols into storage which could have consequences on winter supply. Euro govs will further need to incentivize demand reductions, especially from the industrial sector.”