"Today, Gazprom suspended its gas deliveries to Latvia (...), due to the violation of the gas offtake conditions," the Russian company said in a statement on Telegram, without further details.

The announcement comes as Gazprom drastically reduced deliveries of Russian gas to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline this week, citing the need for maintenance as European countries scramble to fill their reserves. for winter.

Russia had already cut its delivery volume twice in June, saying the pipeline could not function normally without a turbine that was being repaired in Canada and had not been returned to Russia because of sanctions imposed by the Westerners following the Russian assault on Ukraine.

Since then, Germany and Canada have agreed to send the equipment back to Russia, but the turbine has not yet been delivered.

Westerners accuse Moscow of using the energy weapon in retaliation for the sanctions adopted after the offensive against Ukraine.

The Kremlin assures for its part that the sanctions are at the origin of technical problems of the gas infrastructure and that Europe therefore suffers from measures which it imposes on Russia.

"The process of maintaining technical devices is made extremely difficult by the sanctions adopted by Europe," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this week, while assuring that Gazprom "remained a reliable guarantor of its obligations" and "delivered as much as necessary and as much as possible".

Prevent the risk of shortages

Russia has been hit with several rounds of Western sanctions after its military intervention in Ukraine launched on February 24.

Russian gas exports to Europe, particularly to Germany and Italy, have been steadily declining since the start of these sanctions.

Gazprom also interrupted its gas deliveries to several European customers who refused to pay in rubles.

The Baltic states stopped importing Russian gas on April 1, according to Latvian storage company Conexus Baltic Grid.

On Friday, Latvian natural gas trader Latvijas Gāze said it had resumed its purchases of gas from Russia, without specifying its suppliers and assuring that it paid for its deliveries in euros.

According to official data on gas flows published by the company Conexus, gas deliveries to the Latvian gas pipeline have increased sharply since July 21, before stopping abruptly on Friday.

Conexus confirmed to the Latvian news agency LETA that it had been informed by Gazprom of the suspension of its deliveries, while ensuring that other suppliers were still pursuing them.

"Latvia did not count on natural gas flows from Russia," Economy Minister Ilze Indriksone told LETA news agency.

Latvia imports liquefied natural gas from the world market using the terminal in the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda, while the Baltic gas pipelines are connected to the Polish and Finnish networks, making them independent of deliveries from Russia.

In an attempt to prevent the risk of shortages this winter, the 27 members of the EU agreed on Tuesday on a plan providing for each country to do "everything possible" to reduce, by March 2023, its gas consumption. at least 15% compared to the average of the last five years over the same period.

Russia accounted for some 40% of EU gas imports until last year.

© 2022 AFP