The flow of natural gas through Nord Stream will resume after the maintenance work

The German government expects the flow of Russian natural gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to resume after annual maintenance work is completed.

The Deputy Government Representative, Christiane Hofman, stated that the gas flow will resume tomorrow, Thursday, as planned and as provided by the contractual obligations of the Russian state energy company.

Hoffman declined to comment on the Russian president’s recent warning, Vladimir Putinthat the gas supply may drop to 33 million cubic meters per day if a turbine sent for repair is not delivered quickly.

The spokeswoman reiterated that the turbine is a pretext to reduce gas flow, but development of a replacement turbine is still underway.

For its part, a spokesman for the Ministry of Economy and Climate told reporters that Russia is citing as a “pretext” the absence of a turbine on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in order to justify reductions in gas deliveries to Europe.

“This is a replacement turbine that was meant to be used in September, this is to our knowledge a sham and we are doing everything we can to cancel this sham“, said the spokeswoman.

THE Russian gas giant Gazprom recently stated that it cannot guarantee the resumption of deliveries through the pipeline which is undergoing maintenance until tomorrow morning, mainly citing the absence of a Siemens turbine, which it says is necessary in order for a compressor station to be able to operate and has been sent to Canada for repair.

In statements to journalists during last night, Mr Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted that the pipeline could reopen tomorrow morning, but unless Russia receives the missing turbine, it will operate at 20% capacity starting next week.

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