“There are no official documents”: Putin answered the question about the turbine for Gazprom

Yekaterina Maksimova

“Now we are being told that we will soon receive this car from Canada, but Gazprom has no official documents on this yet. Of course, we must get them, because this is our property, this is the property of Gazprom. "Gazprom" must receive not only metal, not only a car, but also documents for it, and legal documents, and technical documentation. We must understand what Gazprom takes, in what condition the car arrived and what is its legal status: it is under sanctions, not under sanctions, what to do with it, tomorrow, maybe they will take it back”, - commented Vladimir Putin (quoted from Kremlin website).

The President recalled that through the main gas pipeline for Europe, Nord Stream 1, Russia annually supplies 55 billion cubic meters. In mid-June, Gazprom warned of a reduction in gas supplies to Europe due to the fact that one of the gas pumping turbines was stuck in Canada due to sanctions imposed against Russia.

Putin, answering journalists' questions, recalled that Nord Stream-1 uses several Siemens gas pumping stations, one in reserve. “One had to be sent for repairs. Instead, it was supposed to come from Canada, from the Siemens plant in Canada, refurbished. She was under sanctions in Canada. This means that one pumping station, just one machine was out of order, because maintenance work has begun, but it has not arrived from Canada,” the head of state explained.

The controversial turbine was sent a few days ago. It was reported that Canada sent the repaired unit to Gazprom via Germany on July 15, the turbine will stay on the road for about two weeks. If everything goes according to plan, the machine, after completion of installation work and adjustment, can be put into operation in early August.

Now Nord Stream 1 has been stopped for scheduled maintenance, which will last until July 21. Even before the scheduled closure, Gazprom, citing problems with the delivery of the turbine, supplied gas in a limited mode - about 40% of the capacity of Nord Stream-1.

As reported in a recent interview with Novye Izvestia, the deputy director for the energy direction of the Institute Energy and Finance Aleksey Belogoryev, the Europeans strongly doubt that after completion of technical works gas supplies to the eurozone will be restored.

“In Europe, the version of Gazprom {absence of a turbine} is not believed. They don't believe at all. They believe that the stop and decline are political motives. I'm not ready to take one side in this case. They can only state that the counterparties in Europe are not satisfied with Gazprom's explanations,” Alexey Belogoryev commented.

According to him, in the West, analysts and politicians believe that the shutdown of Nord Stream 1 is the latest attempt by Gazprom to lobby for certification of Nord Stream 2.

Aleksey Belogoriev, in turn, is sure that after the completion of technical work on the gas pipeline, Gazprom will resume gas supplies to the European market. At least at the level that was before the start of the repair, that is, approximately 40% of the usual level.

The expert recalled that it is the European market that provides Russia with the main gas revenues. In addition, Gazprom is associated with importers by long-term contracts, the failure to fulfill which will lead to litigation. “And if Gazprom maliciously violates these contracts, then the consumer has every right, and they will do it, to apply to arbitration. And Gazprom is facing multibillion-dollar fines in the future,” the expert explained.

As for the prospects for the launch of Nord Stream 2, experts' forecasts are pessimistic. If European countries fulfill their promise and completely abandon Russian gas by 2027, then this asset risks turning into scrap metal.

Vladimir Putin, during a press conference dedicated to his trip to Iran, commented on the situation with the second gas string: It [Nord Stream 2] can be launched, but it is not being launched. But here, too, there are problems, which lie in the fact that a month and a half or how many there, maybe two months ago, we discussed this topic in a conversation with the Chancellor [of Germany], I raised this issue, said that Gazprom had reserved capacities, created these capacities, they need to do something with it, they cannot hang in the air forever. The answer was that there are now other issues, more important, now it is difficult to deal with this, it is out of place.