Nord Stream is operating at 20% capacity, Miller said

MOSCOW, 31 Aug — PRIME. Nord Stream is operating at 20% of its design capacity due to anti-Russian sanctions: Western opponents issued so many sanctions documents that they created confusion and fell into the sanctions trap, said Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller.

“The Portovaya compressor station is currently 20% loaded, and the reason for this is anti-Russian sanctions. Our opponents have already issued such a large number of sanctions documents that they have created a situation that can be called sanctions confusion. They themselves have already become confused in these documents, they themselves got entangled in these sanctions and fell into their own sanctions trap,” he said on the air of the Rossiya 1 TV channel.

Nord Stream, the main route for gas supplies from Russia to Europe, 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 throughput capacity per day. The Russian side emphasized that the limitation of supplies was due solely to foreign sanctions, which caused problems with the maintenance and repair of Siemens gas pumping units. Only one turbine provides work.

Now the pipeline has been completely stopped due to maintenance for three days, from 04:00 Moscow time on August 31 to 04:00 Moscow time on September 3. This is due to routine maintenance at the only working gas pumping unit at the Portovaya compressor station Trent 60. After completion of the work, in the absence of technical malfunctions of the unit, gas transportation will be restored to the level of 33 million cubic meters per day, Gazprom assumes.