Russian gas giant Gazprom said Wednesday it was cutting daily gas deliveries via the Nord Stream pipeline by a further 33%, after Germany slammed an earlier cut as political.
“From 01:30 a.m. Moscow time on June 16 the daily output of the Portovaya compression station will be up to 67 million cubic metrers per day,” Gazprom said in a statement on Telegram.
The company added it was halting the operation of a gas turbine due to the “technical condition of the engine.”
On Tuesday, Gazprom announced it would be cutting deliveries via the pipeline by around 40% to 100 million cubic meters due to “repair” work on compressor units by German company Siemens.
Germany Economy Minister Robert Habeck said the move was a “political decision and not a technically justifiable solution.”
Habeck said Germany was aware of the need to service the pipeline, but the first relevant works would not take place until autumn and do not warrant a reduction of that scale.
Moscow has lost several European gas clients after it demanded that all “unfriendly” countries pay for Russian natural gas in rubles in response to a barrage of Western sanctions over Ukraine.
Poland, Bulgaria, Finland and the Netherlands have had their natural gas deliveries suspended over refusing to pay in rubles.
Gazprom said Wednesday that its export to non-CIS countries was down 28.9% between Jan. 1 and June 15 compared to the same period last year.
The Nord Stream pipeline was commissioned in 2012 and delivers gas from northwestern Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
The launch of another pipeline Nord Stream 2 — that was set to double Russian gas deliveries to Germany — was halted in response to Moscow’s military action in Ukraine.
EU countries have scrambled to reduce their dependency on Russian energy but are divided about imposing a natural gas embargo as several member states are heavily reliant on Moscow’s energy supplies.
