There are still no threats of bottlenecks, but gas supplies could become scarce next winter: the energy supply in Germany is currently secured, as Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Affairs Michael Kellner (Greens) told the RTL/ntv television channels on Wednesday. The gas storage facilities in Germany are currently more than 50 percent full. “That’s good, but not enough for next winter,” said Kellner, Habeck’s right-hand man in the ministry.
The storage of gas must therefore be promoted. He did not want to speculate about the reason for the current throttling of gas supplies from Russia through the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1, said Kellner. Every summer there is “regular maintenance work” on the pipeline. The Economy Ministry is trying to find out if the current decline in gas supplies through the pipeline is related to this.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has classified the throttling of Russian gas supplies as politically motivated. He also has the impression that “what happened yesterday is a political decision, not a technically justifiable decision,” said Habeck on Wednesday in Berlin.
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A little later, the Russian energy company Gazprom announced that it would again reduce the maximum gas delivery volumes through the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline to Germany. From Thursday morning only a maximum of 67 million cubic meters will be pumped through the pipeline every day, Gazprom announced on Wednesday. The Russian state company once again justified this step with delays in repair work by Siemens. Therefore, another gas compression plant had to be shut down, it said.
Gazprom had already announced on Tuesday that it would reduce the maximum delivery volume to initially up to 100 million cubic meters of gas per day. This corresponds to around 60 percent of the previously planned daily volume of 167 million cubic meters of gas. A little later, the Federal Network Agency rejected Gazprom’s statements that delays in repairs to a gas compressor unit were the reason for the reduced gas delivery volumes.
The company Gazprom Germania, which has been under trusteeship since the beginning of April, also plays an important role in the gas supply in Germany, said Kellner. The company is “crucial for the security of supply in the country as well as for the stability and the contracts”, but is under financial pressure due to Russian sanctions. The federal government has therefore decided to support the company with a loan of nine to ten billion euros.
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