That’s it (again) with Putin’s gas!

No gas has been delivered to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline from the Baltic Sea since early Wednesday morning. As announced, the delivery has been stopped. According to the operator sank within the hour from 3am to 4am no significant amount. The amount had already dropped in the previous hour.

The state-owned Gazprom had announced that deliveries via the last most important route to Germany for Russian gas would be temporarily suspended due to maintenance work. Deliveries are expected to resume early Saturday morning.

The head of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, said the maintenance work was technically incomprehensible. More recently, only about 20% of the maximum possible amount has passed through the pipeline. According to Gazprom, there are also technical reasons for this, which the German government, among others, doubts.

The gas supply via Nord Stream 1 had already been interrupted for several days in July – at that time, however, due to annual maintenance work, which Nord Stream AG, as the operating company, had announced long-term.

During the delivery stoppage, there was a dispute between the West, particularly the federal government, and came to Russia. It was an important turbine for the plant, which had been sent back to Germany for storage after being serviced by the manufacturer Siemens Energy in Canada and which has since been in Mülheim an der Ruhr (NRW) because the Russia refused to accept it.

Gazprom: Delivery dispute with France

The Gazprom group also makes deliveries in France, but it does not appear that the public company will supply gas again in the foreseeable future. From Thursday, Gazprom will completely stop supplying gas to the Engie group.

The reason is unpaid bills for deliveries that have already been made in July, the Russian group said on the Telegram online service on Tuesday evening. Engie initially declined to comment.

Previously announced on Tuesday that Gazprom informed the company that deliveries would be halted with immediate effect. The reason is a “disagreement on the application of contracts”.

Gazprom had already greatly reduced its deliveries to Engie since the start of the war in Ukraine. The French group announced on Tuesday that it had taken measures to compensate for supply cuts from Russia. Gas supply to customers is guaranteed.

Record first-half profit

According to its own statements, Russian state-controlled gas company Gazprom made record first-half profits despite Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine. The net result was the result of 2.5 trillion rubles (equivalent to 41.63 billion euros), as the company announced on Tuesday. In addition, Gazprom now wants to pay an interim dividend.

In May, Gazprom cashed in on plans to pay a record dividend based on 2021 results, failing to serve shareholders for the first time since 1998. Shareholders were originally expected to receive 52.53 rubles per share for the past year. It would have been the highest payout in the company’s history. Gazprom expects to pay 51.03 rubles per share for the first half. Shareholders must still approve the proposal on September 30.

(cbu/dpa/AFP/Reu)