Berlin weighs its options to secure gas supplies as Russia halts Nord Stream 1 pipeline

BERLIN, July 12. (DPA/EP) -

Gas deliveries from Russia to Germany have been halted for 10 days over planned maintenance work on the Baltic Sea's Nord Stream 1 pipeline, causing even more uncertainty in Europe's biggest economy about energy supplies as the war in the Ukraine it rages.

"We hope for the best and prepare for the worst," German Economy Minister Robert Habeck stressed, adding that anyone who is able to save energy is contributing to European energy security.

Through Nord Stream 1 -- the most important pipeline for Russian gas to Germany -- gas deliveries had already been reduced to about 40 percent of capacity in recent weeks. This has had a pervasive effect on gas supplies to other more western countries.

With tensions between Europe and Russia at their highest point in decades over the war in Ukraine, German officials are concerned that gas supplies may not resume on July 21, once they are completed. scheduled maintenance work.

Germany will simply have to wait and see. "I don't have any secret information, one way or the other," she told ARD radio.

Any interruption of gas flows would be very detrimental to German industry. However, Habeck has stressed that there were many other options on the table before the closure of industrial sectors, such as the construction of floating liquefied natural gas terminals, was necessary.

For now, he has said, lawmakers intend to fill gas storage facilities before winter.

"If we don't manage to get more gas on the market, we will have to reduce consumption even more," Habeck said.

For his part, the director of Germany's gas-regulatory Network Agency, Klaus Muller, has said that mixed messages had come from Moscow, with the Kremlin promising that gas supplies would return to normal once the repaired turbine had been repaired. returned from Canada, while making some very harsh statements.

"To be honest, no one knows," Muller told German network ZDF.

A German government spokesman acknowledged on Monday that the turbine was not subject to European Union sanctions, which exclude gas supply.

The Nord Stream 1 10-day maintenance shutdown is intended to check, repair or recalibrate the electrical supply, gas and fire safety systems and certain valves, as necessary, along with software updates.

In the past, similar repair jobs have taken between 10 and 14 days and have not always been completed on time.

The maintenance work comes at a time when Germany is urgently trying to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, while filling storage tanks for the winter.

At the moment, Russian gas continues to reach Europe through Ukraine, with some 41.1 million cubic meters scheduled for Monday, although this is still less than half of the pipeline's total daily capacity.