Nord Stream 1 to shut down in July for maintenance: press
Nord Stream 1 will be taken offline for annual maintenance next month, meaning reduced Russian gas flow directly to Germany for a ten-day period, Reuters reported June 13.
The maintenance work will begin on July 11 and finish on July 21 at 06:00 central European time. Last year, Germany lost Nord Stream 1 gas flow from July 15 to 22.
Russian gas supply traditionally flows to Europe via Nord Stream, Yamal-Europe, the Ukrainian transit system and TurkStream. But Yamal-Europe has been flowing in reverse since December, and Poland has cancelled its agreement with Russia on the pipeline's operation. The Ukraine transit system continues to flow Russian gas despite the war, but reliability concerns were raised last month when Ukraine's grid operator declared a force majeure, suspending transit via the Sokhranivka route because of Russian activity.
While Nord Stream's maintenance further restricts piped gas access, Russian gas supply to Germany and Europe at large has already fallen since the war began. Gazprom has cut off supply to buyers in six countries for refusing to pay in rubles in line with a Kremlin decree, including Shell Energy in Germany, which annually takes 1.2bn m3 of Russian gas, according to Gazprom Export. Gazprom has also curtailed shipments to Gazprom Germania following its seizure by German authorities.
Gas flow to Europe has also dropped in recent months due to the arrival of the summer demand season.
Nord Stream's turnaround comes at a time when gas prices in Germany have eased. Bloomberg reported June 10 that German gas prices were trending at their lowest since early this year, allowing stockpilers to gather more gas ahead of the winter heating season. The EU has instructed member states to fill their gas storage facilities to at least 80% capacity by November 1.