- President Vladimir Putin said Russia could restart gas flows to Europe via Nord Stream 1 ‘tomorrow’, if it gets turbines.
- Russia indefinitely halted flows through the pipeline last week, intensifying Europe’s energy crisis.
- He blamed Germany and Western sanctions for the indefinite halt in operations for the pipeline.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Gazprom could restart gas flows to Europe via the key Nord Stream 1 pipeline tomorrow, if it gets the turbines needed.
He blamed Germany and Western sanctions for the indefinite halt in operations for the pipeline, according to media reports from his speech at the Eastern Economic Forum.
State-owned energy giant Gazprom has said the full cutoff of gas flows via Nord Stream 1 is due to turbine servicing company Siemens failing to respond to its requests.
“Give us turbines, and we’ll turn on Nord Stream tomorrow,” Putin said, adding that Russia is ready to start up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline too, Bloomberg News reported.
Russia has squeezed the flow of natural gas to Europe in recent months as relations have deteriorated sharply over the country’s invasion of Ukraine in late February.
In July, Gazprom cut the flow of natural gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline into Germany to just 20% of capacity.
The company closed the pipeline for maintenance on Wednesday last week, but late on Friday said it would not resume exports, citing an oil leak related to turbine technical issues.
The Russian leader claimed Poland and Ukraine had made a decision to switch off other gas routes into Europe, per Reuters.
European natural gas prices have surged around 300% this year, according to Bloomberg data, piling pressure on the continent’s economy. The European Union got around 24% of its energy from natural gas in 2020.
