Russia has once again caused a deepening concern in Europe over the latter's energy shortage after Gazprom, Russia's government-owned-energy giant, shut off natural gas supply through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
However, Gazprom noted that the cutoff was only temporary and would last for three days to allow for maintenance despite the German government and energy executives claiming it to be politically motivated.
Gazprom's Latest Gas Flow Shutdown
The Russian energy giant said that after three days, the pipeline will restart "provided that no malfunctions are identified." The company said that natural gas flows would resume at 20% of capacity, the same reduced level it has provided since late July.
After the maintenance, energy markets will be closely watching to see if supplies do resume as scheduled. The Nord Stream 1 pipeline was shut down in July for 10 days, with the energy giant citing maintenance as well.
Germany, similar to other European countries, is rushing to fill natural gas storage facilities before winter as insurance against cutoffs by Russia. Moscow appears to be trying to obstruct that effort as well as create uncertainty over future gas deliveries, as per the New York Times.
Results of these efforts have so far been mixed, with German gas storage facilities having reached more than 83% of capacity and appear to likely meet the government's goal of 90% by Nov. 1, 2022.
On the other hand, cutoffs of gas flows and worries about supplies in the following months have driven natural gas prices in Europe to record-high levels in the last few weeks. This has inflicted some of the economic damage that the efforts to store up gas are aimed at preventing.
According to the Financial Times, Russia has faced accusations of "weaponizing" energy supplies to Europe and stoking a cost of living crisis in retaliation for western sanctions related to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Russia's Weaponization of Energy Supply
Since Gazprom first restricted supplies on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline three months ago, prices have more than doubled. On Wednesday, Italian energy company Eni said that its supply of gas from Gazprom had been cut by more than a quarter to 20mm cubic meters per day, which is down from roughly 27mm cubic meters per day.
French utility Engie has also reported a complete cut in gas supplies over what the Russian energy giant has described as a contract dispute. The European gas market has recently experienced some relief, with prices coming off the all-time highs that were hit last week.
After surging to a peak above $550 per megawatt hour on Friday, gas prices have fallen back to $235 per megawatt hour, including a further 6% fall on Wednesday. However, prices are only back to where they were trading in mid-August.
The president of the German network regulator said that the country is able to cope with Gazprom's three-day outage as long as flows resumed on Saturday. Klaus Mueller said, "I assume that we will be able to cope with it. I trust that Russia will return to at least 20% from Saturday, but no one can really say," Reuters reported.
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