Gazprom announces indefinite shutdown of Nord Stream 1 pipeline
Vladimir Putin last night sparked a fresh energy war with the West as he kept Europe’s gas pipeline closed after the G7 agreed an oil price cap to choke his war chest.
Moscow blamed ‘oil leaks’ in a turbine after announcing the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which runs to Germany under the Baltic Sea, would not reopen today as planned after three days of maintenance.
Sparking fears of fuel prices rising yet further, state energy firm Gazprom said the facility would remain closed indefinitely until the leaks were fixed. The announcement came hours after Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi agreed with the world’s richest democracies to try and slash the Kremlin’s main source of revenue.
Britain, the US, Canada, France, Italy, Germany and Japan – the countries that make up the G7 – said they would bar insurance for tankers or shipping companies helping Russia sell oil at prices above a cap that they will set.
The possibility of a prolonged halt of natural gas supply will cause further difficulties in European countries scrambling to build up gas storage and cut back usage ahead of winter. Britain has moved to shore up energy supplies by putting coal-fired power stations on standby and taking steps to reopen a major gas storage facility.
Gazprom has already reduced flows through Nord Stream over the summer, accelerating a surge in wholesale gas prices.
Michael Roth, chairman of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said last night: ‘This is part of Russia’s psychological warfare against us.’ Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had suggested there could be more disruptions to deliveries via Nord Stream.
The sale of oil and gas – which adds an estimated £700 million a day to Kremlin coffers – is being used by Russia to bankroll the bloodshed in Ukraine.
The timing of this extended shutdown sparked concern in Brussels that Putin is exploiting Europe’s reliance on Russian fossil fuels.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s official spokesman said Gazprom’s move ‘under fallacious pretences is another confirmation of its unreliability as a supplier’.
Cuts to supplies via Nord Stream have left countries scrambling to refill storage tanks for winter amid fears of possible blackouts later this year. Moscow has already drastically slashed the amount of gas supplied to Europe.
It is the second time Nord Stream has been closed since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
