The Russian government has put out an open statement that stated that it has actually halted all gas deliveries which were being made to Germany through a key pipeline for an indefinite period after announcing on Friday that it had found problems in a key piece of equipment, a new development that will worsen Europe’s energy crisis.
Gazprom which is the Russian gas giant had announced on Friday that the Nord Stream pipeline due to reopen at the weekend would remain shut until a turbine is repaired.
In a statement, Gazprom indicated it had discovered “oil leaks” in a turbine during a planned three-day maintenance operation.
Gazprom added that “until it is repaired… the transport of gas via Nord Stream is completely suspended”.
Resumption of deliveries via the pipeline which runs from near St Petersburg to Germany under the Baltic Sea had been due to resume on Saturday.
Gazprom had then revealed that it had discovered the problems while carrying out some of the maintenance with representatives of Siemens, which had manufactured the turbine in a compressor station that pushes gas through the pipeline.
On its Telegram page, it published a picture of cables covered in a brown liquid.
Earlier in the day, the Kremlin warned the future operation of the Nord Stream pipeline, one of Gazprom’s major supply routes, was at risk due to a lack of spare parts.
“There are no technical reserves, only one turbine is working,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“So the reliability of the operation, of the whole system, is at risk,” he said, adding that it was “not through the fault” of Russian energy giant Gazprom.
Following the imposition of economic sanctions over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia has reduced or halted supplies to different European nations, causing energy prices to soar.