Nord Stream took a three-day vacation. Europeans left without gas promise to leave Russians without visas
Gazprom has completely stopped Nord Stream. The reason is planned repairs at the Portovaya station.
The company said that gas will not be supplied through the pipeline until September 3. Over the past night, pumping dropped to zero - it was initially planned that the repairs would last only until September 2, but today it became known that the Portovaya station will be repaired longer.
When it became known about the repairs, the price of gas soared to a record $3260 per thousand cubic meters. At the same time, the turbines for it are still in Germany - because of this, no more than 33 million cubic meters per day will be passed through the pipeline in the future.
Gazprom previously informed Engie SA that it would cut gas supplies from Tuesday due to disagreements over some contracts, the French utility said, signaling a further cut in energy supplies to Europe.
The announcement followed French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne's call on Monday for businesses to cut energy use or face possible rationing this winter if Russia cuts off gas supplies in response to European support for Ukraine.
A much higher-than-usual number of shutdowns at Electricite de France SA's aging nuclear reactors is also straining the energy market, pushing European gas and electricity prices to record levels.
The stop of Nord Stream coincided with a statement by German Foreign Minister Annalena Bärbock, who proposed suspending the EU agreement on visa facilitation with Russia. According to her, now when issuing a Schengen visa, the applicant’s proximity to the Russian government will be assessed.
“My proposal is to suspend the EU visa facilitation agreement so that multiple-entry and multi-year visas are no longer issued, in order to allow states that are particularly affected by this issue to check exactly for what purposes the visa will be issued. I think that we can find a good solution that will suit our Baltic neighbors, who directly border Russia, and in this regard have legitimate concerns, and at the same time will not be a punishment for those who oppose the regime,” said the German minister.
Let us remind you that today, August 31, European ministers will gather to discuss the issue of visa tightening for Russians.
Nord Stream took a three-day break. Europeans left without gas promise to deprive Russians of visas.