Some believe the next few days will be a race against time. If everything goes well, gas may even flow again. Others, on the other hand, are pretty sure it’s nothing more than a political game orchestrated by the great Kremlin mastermind Vladimir Putin. A show of force.
Each version would be pretty good fiction film material on its own – except that this story is real, but nobody really knows who is actually responsible for the script and what the next chapter will be. Just that the outcome of the plot could decide on the gas supply in Germany and Europe in the coming weeks and months.
A turbine as a symbol
The German-made gas turbine has meanwhile become a symbol of the emerging energy crisis in Europe. According to the Russian Gazprom group, the question of whether Russian gas will flow to Germany again this Thursday, when the maintenance work on the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1 is officially completed, depends primarily on this missing gas turbine. The machine from Siemens Energy was sent to a Siemens Energy plant in Canada for maintenance work before the war, got stuck there because of the sanctions in the wake of the Ukraine war and, at Germany’s urging, is now on its way from Canada to Russia again . Via Germany, where the turbine is to be tested again before it is handed over to Gazprom. There it should – theoretically – be installed again in the Portovaya compressor station, which in turn is responsible for the operation of Nord Stream 1, according to Gazprom. In this case it would be easy: Then the turbine would simply have to be back on site and in use by July 21st. Then it could start again.
Just a spare turbine? And where would the main turbine be then?
But maybe the story goes a little differently, for example in the way many critics believe: that Moscow only advanced the missing turbine to cut off gas supplies. Cold gas withdrawal as a war with other means, so to speak, and pushed to the front line: a turbine from Siemens Energy. This fits in with what the Federal Ministry of Economics announced this Monday. This is just “a replacement turbine for use in September,” said a spokeswoman in Berlin. If this is just a spare turbine brought to Canada for urgent maintenance – where is the main turbine? So, from the start, it was all just an excuse for Moscow to cut gas supplies via Nord Stream 1? If that’s the case, then in the end it might not make any difference whether this replacement turbine is in Russia, Germany, Montreal or anywhere else.
And so to the next question: Where is it anyway, the gas turbine? Siemens Energy does not want to say a word about it, the topic is highly explosive and political. The Russian newspaper Kommersant claims to have heard that the turbine has since been repaired and was brought to Germany by plane from Canada on Sunday. Assuming that there are no major problems with logistics or customs, it will then take another five to seven days for the turbine to arrive at the site. In any case, too late for a punctual reopening of the pipeline. If it ever comes to that.