Germany fears Russia will permanently shut its main gas pipeline within weeks

Authored by businessinsider.com and submitted by nickynickatina
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Germany's economy minister said Thursday he fears Russia will soon shut his country's main gas pipeline.

His comments were echoed Friday by the head of Germany's gas networks.

Russia has already cut gas flows through the crucial Nord Stream 1 pipeline by at least 40%.

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Germany's economy minister said he fears Russia will permanently shut his country's most important natural gas pipeline within weeks.

In an interview with German broadcaster ZDF Thursday, Robert Habeck said: "I would have to lie if I said I didn't fear that."

The pipeline in question, Nord Stream 1, is the main pipeline transporting natural gas to Germany from Russia. Germany is the world's top importer of Russian gas, which it needs for 35% of its supply — but that supply has been under threat since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

Nord Stream 1 is due to shut down on July 11 for 10 days of scheduled maintenance. Klaus Mueller, head of Germany's natural gas network, suggested Friday that flows wouldn't restart after the maintenance shutdown, Bloomberg reported, citing the public broadcaster ARD.

"If we have a very, very cold winter, if we're careless and far too generous with gas then it won't be pretty," Mueller added, per Bloomberg.

The Kremlin began reducing gas flows to Germany in the wake of European Union sanctions and Berlin's decision to provide military support to Ukraine. On June 14, the Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom said it was cutting flows of natural gas to Germany through Nord Stream 1 by 40%.

On Thursday, Germany declared a gas crisis.

Germany is now in stage two of a three-stage contingency plan to cope with reduced gas supply, part of which involves topping up gas storage facilities and firing up decommissioned coal power plants. The final stage of the plan would involve rationing gas supplies throughout the country.

ChrysMYO on June 24th, 2022 at 13:22 UTC »

Has anybody revisited why the EU and even some in Ukraine were so confident Russia was not going to escalate the war in Ukraine?

It seems like between this pipeline problem and Oil prices, they ceded way too much leverage. What did they have as leverage in their back pocket? Were they always confident economic sanctions would be all that was needed to keep Russia in line?

QuestionsForLiving on June 24th, 2022 at 12:48 UTC »

Germany can last 2 1/2 months without Russian gas, official says.

So what happens then?

Norwegian take over?

stormingrages on June 24th, 2022 at 12:44 UTC »

Russia was always going to use energy as a weapon. All countries who decided to make themselves dependent on Russian energy are learning the hard way. I hope this time, the lesson is learned. You can only be friends with Russia if you never seek to oppose her on anything.