Gazprom to lower Nord Stream pumping to 67 mcm/day as another Siemens unit forced to stop
MOSCOW. June 15 (Interfax) - Gazprom will lower gas pumping along the Nord Stream pipeline to 67 million cubic meters per day after another Siemens gas turbine unit was forced to stop at the Portovaya compressor station.
"Gazprom is stopping another Siemens gas turbine at Portovaya because the period between overhauls has passed, in keeping with a Federal Environmental, Industrial, and Nuclear Supervision Service (Rostechnadzor) order," Gazprom said in a statement.
The Portovaya compressor station's daily pumping capability will decrease to 67 mcm per day from 1:30 a.m. MSK on June 16," it said.
Gazprom said on Tuesday it was cutting gas pumping via Nord Stream by 40% from Russia to Germany owing to actions on the part of Germany's Siemens. Owing to the delay in Siemens returning the gas-pumping units from repair. That reduced pumping to 100 mcm per day from 167 mcm per day. Capacity falls 60% now that a second unit is out of action.
Gas prices in Europe rose 10% to $1,200 per thousand cubic meters for the TTF contract for delivery in July.
Siemens announced a month ago that it would exit the Russian market, and it began the procedure for terminating its production and operations.
Gazprom has reported about Siemens "delaying the return" of gas-pumping units from repairs and maintenance that were conducted at factories outside Russia, as evidenced by previous reports from Siemens.
Germany's Spiegel said Siemens Energy was discussing the return of the turbines to Russia with the Canadian authorities as the turbines are repaired in Montreal. It quoted Siemens Energy as saying the turbines could only be repaired there for technical reasons and that sanctions imposed by Canada prevented Siemens Energy from shipping them back to the customer. "We have notified the governments of Canada and Germany and we are working on an acceptable solution," Siemens Energy was quoted a saying.
The Nord Stream Trans-Baltic gas pipeline is 1,224 kilometers long with a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year and has been operating since 2011.
It is impossible to replace the shortfall in supply volume with Ukrainian gas, as Kyiv has limited the acceptance of Russian gas for transit owing to a force majeure. Russian sanctions have prohibited the use of capacity of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline through Poland.