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Photo: Advertising/Gazprom
Russian stateowned Gazprom, which is responsible for supplying natural gas to Europe, has halved supplies from its main Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, which crosses the Baltic Sea and reaches the continent via Germany.
The information was released this Wednesday (27th) by Gascade, the German operator of the gas pipeline.
Gazprom announced the cut on Monday (27th), citing the shutdown of a turbine for repairs as the reason.
However, German Economics Minister Robert Habeck said on the same day that there was “no technical reason to reduce deliveries”.
Germany is one of the EU countries most dependent on Russian gas. According to the latest data from the Bloc’s Agency for Cooperation of Energy Regulators, almost 50% of natural gas imports to the country come from Russia.
Until then, Nord Stream 1 was operating at 40% of its capacityfollowing cuts imposed by Moscow in response to Western sanctions for invading Ukraine.
Now the pipeline is only working at 20%.
According to 2021 data from JPMorgan and The Economist, before the invasion in February, Nord Stream 1 was the Russian pipeline delivering the most gas to Europe, at 55 billion cubic meters per year.
Of the other four, the closest was the one that crosses Ukraine, at 40 billion cubic meters per year.
The countries reacted to the announcement of the cut on Tuesday (27th). European Union arrived at one Agreement to reduce natural gas consumption by 15% between August and March.
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