“Unpleasant story for the West”: Russia reacted to the situation with the turbine for Nord Stream

On Thursday, July 7, German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection Robert Habek urged Canada to resolve the issue with the delivery of a turbine for Nord Stream.

According to him, Germany needs the capacity of the trans-Baltic gas pipeline to fill its own storage facilities.

“If there is a legal issue for Canada here, then I want to note that I am not asking them to deliver it (the turbine. -

) to Russia, deliver it to Germany,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg.

According to him, the turbine should be returned before the preventive maintenance work on the pipeline scheduled for Monday, July 11th.

Khabek stressed that he was “ready to be the first to defend the adoption of the next tough package of EU sanctions” against the Russian Federation, but he should deal a greater blow to Russia and its leadership than to the economies of Western countries.

He also added that the fulfillment by the Canadian side of his request would deprive Moscow of the opportunity to use the lack of a turbine as an excuse for a possible shutdown of gas supplies after the completion of repairs.

“Full warehouse capacities in Germany are important not only for the German market, but also for the European market, as well as for the reliability of supplies to Europe,” he said.

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Recall that in June, Gazprom announced that it was forced to limit gas supplies via Nord Stream due to the untimely return of gas pumping units from repair by Siemens, as well as identified technical malfunctions of engines.

On June 14, the volume of pumping at the Portovaya compressor station was reduced to 100 million cubic meters.

m per day (with a planned volume of 167 million cubic meters).

The next day, the Russian holding announced the suspension of the operation of another Siemens gas turbine engine at the Portovaya CS "due to the end of the time between overhauls before overhaul."

After that, pumping was reduced to 67 million cubic meters.

m per day.

In turn, Siemens Energy said that it could not return the turbine for Nord Stream to Germany from Montreal due to Canadian sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation.

On July 1, Nord Stream AG, the operator, announced that it would stop pumping on both lines of Nord Stream from July 11 to 21 to carry out scheduled preventive maintenance in order to “ensure efficient, safe and reliable operation of the gas pipeline.”

“A very unpleasant story for the collective West”

According to the director of the Energy Development Fund, Sergei Pikin, in order to resolve the issue with the Nord Stream turbine, the Canadian authorities will not even need to lift sanctions, an exception can simply be made.

“Finally, their minds began to wake up.

This is a political issue.

If the politicians agree, then this is a matter of one moment, ”the RT interlocutor added.

The German authorities have finally traced a causal relationship regarding the reduction in gas pumping through the Nord Stream to their territory, said Igor Yushkov, an expert at the Financial University under the Government of Russia and the National Energy Security Fund.

“Siemens cannot return this turbine or take the rest that have stopped for maintenance because Canada has imposed sanctions against Russia.

If Germany wants to receive more gas from Nord Stream, it must negotiate with Canadians to make an exception in the sanctions package.

And this is a normal procedure, because, for example, the United States literally releases some exceptions to sanctions every week.

They always do this: first they impose sanctions in bulk, and then they set up this sanctions regime by issuing so-called general licenses, ”the expert noted.

According to him, Canada can easily go the same way, but, apparently, is waiting for a go-ahead from the States.

“At the same time, Germany has other options.

For example, to launch Nord Stream 2, where Russian turbines are located.

As we can see, the Germans are apparently trying to blackmail the Americans and Canadians, stating that if they do not allow the turbines to be repaired and returned to Russia, then they will have to launch the SP-2.

Obviously, this is a very unpleasant story for the collective West.

Because they demonized the SP-2 for a very long time and made it a symbol of “Russian aggression,” Yushkov explained.