Russia halts gas deliveries through TurkStream pipeline for a week
Moscow, Jun 21 (EFE).- Russia’s state-owned gas consortium Gazprom suspended gas flows Tuesday through the TurkStream pipeline for a week.
The company supplies gas to Turkey and several countries in southern Europe through the pipeline.
“Gas transportation along both strings of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline will be temporarily suspended from 21 to 28 June 2022 due to scheduled preventive maintenance,” Gazprom said on Telegram.
“The suspension of gas transportation was agreed upon by all interested parties in advance,” it added.
The TurkStream pipeline, which is located at the bottom of the Black Sea, can transport up to 31.5 billion cubic meters of gas annually.
Each of its two lines, nearly 1,100 kilometers (684 miles) long, have a daily carrying capacity of 41.2 million cubic meters of natural gas.
A total of 32 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas was supplied to Europe via this pipeline on Sunday.
Last year, it supplied 10.5 mcm of gas to Bulgaria, 9.6 million to Greece, 8.9 million to Serbia, 8.5 million to Romania, 6.3 million to Hungary, and 1.7 million to North Macedonia.
Last week, Russia announced two reductions in gas deliveries to Europe through the Nord Stream gas pipeline, one of 40 percent and another of 33 percent.
Gazprom attributed the reduction in supply to a delay in the return of components from German company Siemens, which are stuck in Canada, due to sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
“That is, this is a man-made crisis, it was created by the (European Union). We have gas, and it is ready for delivery. But the Europeans must give back the ‘hardware’ after repairing it in accordance with their obligations,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday.
However, Germany claims the reductions in gas supply are politically motivated.
The Nord Stream 1 transports Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
The German government halted the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project on account of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. EFE
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