Russian state energy giant Gazprom has announced it will be shuttering both Nord Stream pipelines and their associated compressor stations, according to a new report in the Kommersant newspaper Monday which cites company sources. Both legs of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, and one leg of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline were damaged in acts of sabotage involving underwater explosive attacks, and are presently unusable.
The report noted that although the pipelines are being mothballed, gas-pumping equipment will remain in place at the Portovaya and Slavyanskaya compressor stations so that if conditions change, gas flows could be restored on short notice following repairs of the pipelines.
Analyst Sergey Kondratyev of the Institute of Energy and Finance estimated repairs of the pipelines might take between three and five months, and cost as much as three billion rubles ($50 million). He noted mothballing the pipelines is the right decision as currently there is no known timeline for the repairs. He also noted the equipment cannot be transferred to other compressor stations as the equipment at Portovaya is unique.
It is possible as well that Gazprom may elect to never repair the pipelines, given the current geopolitical situation. The Portovaya compressor station was actually out of commission prior to the explosions, due to a lack of maintenance and equipment produced by Western sanctions that had been levied in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Gazprom head Alexei Miller had said one month ago, “There is no answer to the question of how and why to restore the strings of Nord Stream if the pumps at Portovaya station are out of service.”
Russia has labeled the explosions which damaged the pipelines as an “act of international terrorism.” The Russian Ministry of Defense accused Britain of being involved last month, however the UK denied the accusations. Probes by Sweden and Denmark have concluded the pipelines were damaged by explosions, however they have not made any headway reportedly in identifying a perpetrator.
