Status: 08/31/2022 05:29 am
At 3 a.m., Russia shut down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for three days, according to the announcement. Again the reason is: maintenance work. Meanwhile, the transport of a working turbine is being delayed.
It is October 2012 when the completion of the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline is being celebrated near St. Petersburg. A man in a striped suit presses “Otkrijt” – in English “open” – and everyone present enthusiastically shakes hands. Among them is Gerhard Schröder.
From then on, six large turbines drive the Baltic Sea pipeline. Up to 167 million cubic meters of gas now flow to Germany every day.
A happy moment for Gerhard Schröder, Gazprom boss Alexei Miller and the then head of the Russian presidential administration, Sergei Ivanov: the launch of Nord Stream 1 in October 20212.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
The excitement is long gone
But today, almost ten years later, there is not much left of it. It is said that only one of the six turbines is still working.
And instead of the 167, only 33 million cubic meters of gas flow through the pipeline per day – a fifth of the original amount. And now the gas tap will be turned off completely for three days – until September 2nd. Once again.
This news is read like any other on Russian state television. According to the Russian statement, the last remaining turbine had to be repaired as a precaution.
Just a routine process?
It’s the second service in two months. It was not until mid-July that the pipeline was – as a matter of routine – shut down for ten days. This time everything is routine again, the Gazprom group assured.
At the same time, the same tones keep coming from Moscow. Just yesterday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that Russia was not to blame for all the back and forth over turbine maintenance.
There is a guarantee: nothing disrupts our deliveries, except technical problems caused by the sanctions. Russia has been and continues to be ready to fulfill all of its commitments. European countries, Canada, the United States and Great Britain have imposed sanctions that do not allow normal maintenance and repair work. Apart from the sanctions, however, there are no other obstacles for Russia to fulfill its obligations.
Moscow repeatedly declares that, unlike in Europe, it is not acting here with political motivation. The maintenance and ever smaller gas deliveries are simply necessary.
Demonstrative visit to Siemens
However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz only seemed to want to prove the opposite at the beginning of this month. At that time it was still about another of the six turbines.
A turbine serviced in Canada could not be returned to Russia because of the sanctions. Germany asked for an exception, Canada helped. Scholz then personally visited the now notorious turbine in Mühlheim, Germany, and demonstratively explained: “The turbine is there, it can be delivered. Someone just has to say, ‘I want it’.”
The turbine is still there
But the planned transit has become an indefinite stop. Gazprom lacked documents, sources in Russia said. The turbine hasn’t budged since then.
It had been clear for weeks that a turbine would not solve the pipeline problem. As early as July, Vladimir Putin calculated which other turbines should be installed in the Portovaya compressor station and with which problems:
Five Siemens gas pump stations are working there, one is in reserve. One should be sent for repair. At the end of July, another turbine should be sent for maintenance work and repairs. And another turbine is already out of service because some kind of inner lining fell off. Siemens can confirm that.
A gas flame burns above a production terminal in Portovaya Bay north of St. Petersburg. But no more gas will come into the North Stream 1 pipeline from here for days.
Image: REUTERS
Putin’s message
It’s a complicated calculation that nobody outside of Russia can verify. But Putin’s statement was clear on one point: there are at least as many problems as there are turbines.
In just ten years, Nord Stream 1 has gone from a flagship project to a permanent political issue – which will certainly not be over even after this maintenance.
No gas again: Start of new maintenance work
Annette Kammerer, ARD Moscow, August 30, 2022 6:45 p.m