Europe frets over reduced Russian gas supply. Will Putin turn off the tap?
- The biggest single pipeline carrying Russian gas to Germany starting annual maintenance on Monday for 10 days
- Europe fears Russia may extend the scheduled maintenance, throwing plans to fill storage for winter into disarray
Russian gas giant Gazprom began 10 days of routine maintenance on its Nord Stream 1 pipeline on Monday – with Germany and other European countries watching anxiously to see if the gas comes back on.
The annual work on the two pipelines was scheduled long in advance. The fear is however that – with relations between Russia and the West at their lowest in years because of the invasion of Ukraine – Gazprom might take the opportunity to simply shut off the valves.
“(President Vladimir) Putin is going to turn off the gas tap … but will he turn it back on one day?” German mass daily Bild asked on Sunday on its website.
“We are confronted by an unprecedented situation – anything is possible,” German vice-chancellor, Robert Habeck, told public radio over the weekend.
“It is possible that the gas will flow once more, even at a higher volume level than before.”
But, he warned: “it is possible that nothing comes through, and we still have to prepare for the worst” as Europe scrambles to transition away from Russia for energy supplies.