The amount of natural gas flowing through the major pipeline from Russia to Europe has been halved by Gazprom. The total gas flowing in the pipeline is 20% of capacity. This is the latest reduction in Nord Stream1 pipeline and Russians blame technical problems are causing this reduction whereas Germany says that this is a political move for Germany’s support of Ukraine.
This development has raised concerns in Europe that Russia could completely cut off gas to its power plants to generate electricity and heat homes to gain political leverage over Europe. Gazprom is Russian state controlled energy giant that supplies much of Europe’s energy needs especially during winters.
Germany claims that Russia is using Gas as part of Russian foreign policy and possibly war strategy. This has sent energy prices soaring in Europe and fueling inflation and reducing peoples spending power and dragging Europe into recession as it does not have enough gas to get through the winter months. Currently the natural gas prices have surged nearly six times higher than they were last year.
EU governments have decided to reduce their natural gas consumption by 15% to shield against further cuts by Russia. However, Russia is claiming the reduction in gas supply is due to maintenance on a turbine for a compressor station. European leaders are saying that these cuts are a pretext to divide EU countries and drive the gas rates higher.
The German government has said that they can’t rely on Russian deliveries of gas and announced that it would step up its gas storage requirements and take further measures to conserve supplies.