Gazprom can, under the pretext of summer maintenance of the North Stream gas pipeline, completely stop the supply of energy resources to Germany, according to sources of the newspaper Financial Times in the German government. A similar situation, in their opinion, can provoke an energy crisis in the country in winter.
“The situation with deliveries is quite stressful, even without disconnecting NS1 (” Northern Stream “- Ed.),- said one of the interlocutors of the publication. A formal reason for the termination of export processes, according to an unnamed source of FT in the government, Gazprom may be a temporary closure of the gas pipeline for repairs in mid -July. Despite the fact that this is a regular technical procedure, officials are concerned that this year Gazprom can take advantage of the situation for pressure on the European Union.
A member of the German business confederation of BDI Karsten Rollla explained that earlier Gazprom compensated for a simple “northern stream” for the duration of the repair of supplies through Ukraine or the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline. “But there are fears that this year they will not do this … They have already reduced the flows through NS1 by 60% and did not compensate for this by increasing the flows through other pipelines,” he added.