………As Gazprom Halts Another Turbine
Gazprom has halted yet another turbine at its main compressor station in the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline. This is amid the gas turbine chapter of the Russia gas flow saga.
Gazprom announced yesterday that not only does the Russian gas producer have trouble with a turbine currently being returned to it by Canada, but it is also now halting a second turbine at its main compressor station.
Bloomberg’s Javier Blas reported that the flows along Nord Stream 1 will drop starting on Wednesday to 33 mcm per day; and this is a 50% drop from the current flow, and amounts to just 20% of Nord Stream 1’s full capacity.
Although an earlier statement yesterday was that the first gas turbine was making its way back to Russia, Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, was quoted saying later that they “still have problems with other units.”
Russia restarted gas flows through Nord Stream 1 after routine maintenance had the pipeline down for 10 days. As of today, flows along Nord Stream 1 have recovered to 40% of the pipeline’s maximum capacity.
Gazprom has said that 40% limit is due to the delay in returning the turbine to Gazprom, although there is some debate whether there are actual paperwork delays with the return of the turbine or simply Gazprom dragging its feet.
“Gazprom received from Siemens documents issued by the Canadian authorities. However, after studying the documents, Gazprom had to conclude that they do not eliminate the previously identified risks and give rise to additional questions,” Gazprom’s earlier statement read, adding that “the issues regarding the sanctions imposed by the EU and the UK remain unsolved for Gazprom,” and that resolving this issue is “important for delivering the engine to Russia and performing urgent major repair of other turbine engines from the Portovaya CS.”
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