On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that until the West lifts the economic sanctions placed on Russia, technical issues with gas deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline will persist.
All gas deliveries were halted on August 31st as the pipeline was closed down to perform maintenance. Although Russia had scheduled the pipeline to reopen three days later, during an inspection it was discovered the one remaining turbine was leaking oil, and needed to be serviced. Russia announced it would have to shut down the pipeline until the turbine was serviced. However servicing the turbine has become difficult as sanctions now prevent the shipping of such an item, or the materials to service it in situ, across national borders.
Peskov noted, “Problems in [gas] deliveries arose due to sanctions that have been imposed on our country and a number of companies by Western countries, including Germany and the UK. There are no other reasons behind supply issues.” He went on to say it is not Gazprom’s fault that, “the Europeans absolutely absurdly make a decision to refuse to service their equipment,” despite being contractually obligated to do so.
Peskov emphasized that all Nord Stream operations are dependent on this “one piece of equipment that needs serious maintenance.”
Alexander Novak, Russian Deputy Prime Minister, echoed the sentiments, saying, “The entire problem lies precisely on [the EU’s] side, because all the conditions of the repair contract have been completely violated, along with the terms of shipping of the equipment.”
On Friday the oil leak was discovered during a joint inspection of the turbine by Gazprom and its manufacturer Siemens, at the Protovaya compressor station near St Petersburg. The issue can only be repaired at a facility in Canada, however it cannot be shipped there due to Canadian sanctions imposed on Moscow which limit the cross border shipments of various items of economic importance, such as technology and machinery.
Despite the inability to repair the turbine due to sanctions, Europe has accused Moscow of weaponizing its energy supplies as a political weapon, and using them in retaliation for the Western sanctions. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has claimed, Moscow is, “not a reliable partner” in terms of energy supplies.
Meanwhile, at the same time, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline has ben fully constructed, and is only not operational because Germany has refused final certification of it for political reasons.
