Waiting time: In Lubmin on the Baltic Sea, the natural gas from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline comes ashore.
Image: Reuters
No more gas flows through Nord Stream 1 – for the time being. Politicians and companies are now preparing for the event that this remains the case.
SThe time has come since Monday morning, 6 a.m.: No more gas flows from Russia to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. The annual maintenance has started and no one knows what will happen after the scheduled ten days: will gas then flow through the pipeline in the Baltic Sea again? And if so: Only 40 percent of the usual level as last time or as much as before? Or will Russia’s President Vladimir Putin find reasons why the gas flow can’t get going again? The gas storage facilities in Germany are currently about 64 percent full. That’s not nearly enough to get through the winter.
Despite the current standstill, the energy industry expects gas storage levels in Germany to continue to rise. “Over the past few days, we have usually stored more gas than was delivered via Nord Stream 1 every day,” says Sebastian Bleschke, Managing Director of the Energy Storage Initiative (INES), the association of gas storage operators in Germany. “I assume that despite the maintenance of Nord Stream 1, storage will continue, but possibly at a lower level.”
