Russia's gas via Nord Stream 1 resumes with 30% of capacity: German Federal Agency

After being shut down for 10 days for maintenance, the significant pipeline carrying natural gas from Russia to Europe has started operating on Thursday, according to the operator. Further, gas has resumed flowing from Russia to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. However, it was anticipated that the gas flow would be far below maximum.  

According to Klaus Muller, the President of the German Federal Network Agency Bundesnetzagentur, Russia's energy behemoth Gazprom notified gas deliveries on Thursday of only about 30% of the pipeline's capacity. Furthermore, on Wednesday, July 20, Muller said on Twitter that Gazprom has revised the gas flows to Germany to be about 530 gigawatts per day. 

Muller further added in a tweet, “The Gas nomination of NordStream1 for today has remained at approx. 530 GWh/ d (= approx. 30% utilization). It is binding for the next 2 hours, changes during the day would be very unusual.” Besides this, he earlier claimed that in the case of the German entries from Nord Stream 1, before the revision, there would be around 800 GWh/d of Gas initially proposed for July 21, 2022. 

However, according to a report by the Associated Press, Russia's Gazprom curtailed gas deliveries to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline by 60% last month, citing technical problems when a turbine that Siemens had sent to Canada for maintenance couldn't be returned due to sanctions. 

'It is "still not enough to get through" the winter without access to Russian gas': Muller

In addition to this, Klaus Muller stated that the gas storage units are about 65% filled. Muller told Bild that while circumstances are "better" than they were in the previous weeks, it is "still not enough to get through" the winter without access to Russian gas. According to media reports, he underlined that Nord Stream 1's maintenance work has been scheduled to complete on July 21 and that the scenario is now reliant on the supply of gas following the pipeline's restart. 

Muller even emphasised that private residences do not need to worry because they have been supplied with gas for a longer period of time than the industry while discussing people's concerns about their heating being switched off during the winter. As per media reports, he said that even if the supply of gas from Russia stops, Germany will still purchase some gas from Norway as well as Holland. 

According to Bild, Muller claimed that there is no chance that Germany would continue to run out of gas. Klaus Muller expressed his opinions on gas prices, claiming that despite the shutdown of Nord Stream 1, there hasn't been a noticeable increase in price in the week. 

Meanwhile, on July 11, the key gas pipeline Nord Stream 1 from Russia to western Europe was shut off by the Russian energy company Gazprom. The Russian energy company has halted the gas pipeline's flow for ten days, until July 21. According to AP, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck voiced worry that Russia would not start supplying gas again and attributed the supply interruption to "some little technical detail." 

(Image: Twitter/ @Klaus_Mueller/ AP)