Europe predicted the consequences of downtime “Nord Stream”

MOSCOW, 3 Sep — PRIME. The technical downtime of the Nord Stream pipeline will strengthen the upward trend in gas prices in the European market, which can already be called insane, Aleksey Grivach, deputy head of the National Energy Security Fund, shared his opinion with RIA Novosti.

Gazprom announced the day before that Nord Stream, which had been previously stopped for three days for scheduled maintenance, could not resume operation due to an oil leak at the only running Trent 60 unit. A representative of the German Siemens Energy told RIA Novosti that the company does not consider the conclusion Gazprom’s technical reason for stopping the pipeline.

The downtime of Nord Stream deprives Europe of up to 33 million cubic meters of gas per day, or about one billion cubic meters per month. Such losses, Grivach recalled, are superimposed on the previous reduction in supplies from Russia via Nord Stream and other routes – at least 8-9 billion cubic meters per month, the expert calculated. This, according to him, is already a very serious gap in the EU gas balance, where in today’s conditions every cubic meter counts.

“Obviously, the reduction in gas supply will strengthen the upward trend in prices. The level (to which exchange gas prices can jump – ed.) is difficult to assess, since spot trading has no restrictions. The prices that we see now are absolutely insane and destroy the economy, energy and social sphere. In the event of a shortage, they have the potential for significant growth,” Grivach stressed.

Stock prices for gas in Europe have been growing since the spring of last year and continue to renew their historical highs. The price record of $3,892 per thousand cubic meters was reached on March 7. Gas quotes a day earlier for the first time since the beginning of spring crossed the $3,500 threshold, but then dropped again to $2,200. This is several times higher than last year’s prices, when gas prices were already at a record high.

Nord Stream has been operating with restrictions since mid-June, and since the end of July, it has been operating at only 20% of its nearly 170 million cubic meters of capacity per day. The Russian side emphasized that the decrease in supplies was due solely to sanctions, which caused problems with the maintenance and repair of Siemens gas pumping units. Recently, only one turbine provided work.