France is able to supply Germany with 20 terawatt hours of natural gas, or 2% of German consumption, during the winter months if needed, French energy officials said, according to Reuters.
The exploitation of natural gas by Moscow as an economic and political weapon against the European Union has highlighted the dependence of the EU and especially Germany on Russian gas, leading to a search for alternative energy resources.
Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and biggest importer of Russian gas, has been hit particularly hard by supply cuts since mid-June and is bracing for all scenarios, including a complete halt to exports from Moscow.
Today, after all, the flow of natural gas through Germany’s Nord Stream fell today to 20% of the pipeline’s maximum capacity, as had been announced, intensifying concerns about the risk of shortages in the coming winter.
Gazprom had announced on Monday the doubling of daily deliveries via Nord Stream, citing a “maintenance operation on a turbine”.
A spokesman for the Kremlin said that Western sanctions were responsible for the reduction, which “if they didn’t exist, everything would have been done with the usual deadlines”, but the Europeans reject the technical reasons cited by Moscow and accuse it of using natural gas as an economic and political weapon.
For its part, after all, the European Union approved yesterday Tuesday an emergency plan for, in principle, a voluntary reduction of natural gas consumption in its 27 member countries by 15% in view of the energy-difficult winter to come, however granting the right for exceptions to various states depending on their special conditions and needs.
The plan will however become mandatory if Russia cuts off gas flows to the EU, creating an energy suffocation.
Source: Capital
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