On Friday, Russian State Energy company Gazprom announced it is suspending all natural gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline indefinitely, due to technical malfunctions. It had previously shut down the pipeline temporarily for maintenance, and scheduled a reopening on September 3rd following repairs to its sole remaining gas turbine.

Gazprom noted it had been warned by Russia’s industrial regulator Rostekhnadzor of the turbine’s failure. During maintenance work, it was noted there was a problem with its operation, and it will now have to be shut down until proper repairs can be completed.

Gazprom added that it had notified German manufacturer Siemens of the turbine’s need for an overhaul.

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline has been operating at limited capacity since July, due to maintenance issues with several turbines. Some of the turbines were delivered to Montreal for repairs, and became trapped when the West imposed sanctions on Russia due to the military action in Ukraine. At Germany’s request, Ottowa announced a waiver of the sanctions in order to return a turbine to Germany, so it could be sent on to Russia. However Russia refused delivery due to the turbine not being delivered directly to Russia as agreed upon, as well as irregularities in the delivery paperwork, and a fear of intelligence agencies tampering with the turbine in a way to facilitate later sabotage.

Gazprom cited all of this as the reason for its inability to raise gas flows above 20% through the pipeline, as the pipeline continued to operate on its sole remaining turbine, out of the eight which were normally supposed to be operational to supply full flows, and which are backed up by four additional reserve turbines that are to be employed in the event of one of the primary turbines being taken offline.

As all of this is transpiring, the newly built Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is prepared for operation, stands idle, due to Germany refusing to certify it for operation, for political reasons.