Gas deliveries to Italy and Austria will also decrease.
On Monday morning, Russian gas stopped flowing to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline.
The pipeline will be closed for a ten-day maintenance break, the Nord Stream company announces in its press release. During the break, for example, the pipe’s power supply is checked and the software of the pipe hardware is updated.
In previous years, similar works have lasted 10–14 days, but the schedules have sometimes been stretched.
However, the authorities in Germany are worried that this year the supply break will not be temporary, but that Russia will respond to the economic sanctions by shutting down the pipeline.
– Putin closes the gas tap – but will he open it again? asked Bild magazine on Sunday.
The Russian state gas company Gazprom has already reduced the amount of gas transported in the pipeline to 40 percent of its capacity. According to Russia, less gas is delivered because the repair work takes longer due to the sanctions.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected this explanation and requires deliveries to be restarted.
The turbine needed for the pipe has been serviced in Canada. After a strong plea from Scholz, Canada agreed to send it back despite the economic sanctions.
Ukraine’s comments on the decision were bitter and it accused Germany of bowing down in the face of Russian blackmail.
Starting Monday, the maintenance break will also reduce the amount of gas supplied to Italy, the Italian energy company Eni said. According to Eni, Gazprom’s deliveries will decrease to approximately 21 million cubic meters per day, while the previous average has been 32 million cubic meters.
Part of the Russian gas delivered to Italy is brought through a gas pipeline that passes through Austria. The Austrian energy company OMV, in turn, said that it had learned from Gazprom that the amount of gas arriving at the Baumgarten distribution center will decrease by 70 percent.
Baumgarten, located near Vienna, is Austria’s most important gas distribution center, which forwards gas to the rest of Europe as well.
Cold showers available
In Germany, which is still strictly dependent on Russian gas, they are now trying to fill up stocks for the winter. Before the Russian attack on Ukraine, Germany imported 55 percent of its gas from Russia, but the share has now been reduced to 35 percent.
The interruption of gas supply could cause dramatic consequences for the country’s economy and households. Germans are already being advised to take shorter and cooler showers.
Chemical giant BASF has warned that it may have to lay off some of its approximately 100,000-strong workforce if gas supplies are cut off completely.
Last week, the German Bundestag approved a law that lowers the maximum temperature in apartments to 20 degrees for the winter and can limit hot water deliveries.
– We are in an unprecedented situation and we have to prepare for the worst, warned Minister of Economy and Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck in a radio interview over the weekend.
Russian gas supplies have already stopped completely in the past to many EU countries, including Poland, Bulgaria and Finland. Gas from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline has been delivered from Germany onwards to Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain and the Netherlands, so the end of the gas supply will also affect them.
The head of the German Energy Agency, Klaus Müller, stated that if Germany no longer receives Russian gas, the current stocks will only be enough for 1-2 months.
According to the agency’s monitoring, the goal of filling the stocks by 90 percent by November cannot be realized without additional measures if Nord Stream’s deliveries continue at the level of 40 percent.
– The Bundesnetzagentur strongly supports the call to save as much gas as possible, the agency announced.