Siemens has received all the necessary export documents for transporting a turbine for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to Russia, but is waiting for permission from the Russian Federation to import it, a company representative told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
“The necessary export documents for the export of the turbine from Germany and transit through various countries to Russia have already been received. However, without import documentation for Russian customs, it cannot be transported to Russia,” Siemens said.
“These documents can only be obtained from Gazprom,” they added.
Siemens also said the turbine is “fully prepared” for transport, which can begin immediately.
Nord Stream – the main route for gas supplies from Russia to Europe – has been operating with restrictions since mid-June, and since the end of July – only 20% of its nearly 170 million cubic meters of throughput capacity per day. Gazprom attributed this to improper maintenance and a delay in returning Siemens turbines from repair, which were used at the gas compressor units (GCU) of the Portovaya compressor station (CS) to supply gas to the pipeline.
Now the line is operated by only one Siemens engine with a capacity of 52 MW. There are five such engines in normal operation and one is in standby mode. Plus, in both cases there is a hot reserve – two turbines with a capacity of 27 MW each.
A particular difficulty arose with the return of the turbine from Canada, which imposed sanctions on Gazprom. The Canadian authorities issued a permit for its export only on July 10, but did not take into account the terms of the current contract in it and delivered the engine to Germany, and not to Russia, the Russian company noted. At the same time, permissions from the EU and UK authorities are also needed to remove all sanctions risks and repair other engines, Gazprom pointed out.
In Europe, it is periodically stated that problems with turbines cannot be the real reason for the decrease in gas supplies. The Russian side has repeatedly emphasized that the limitation of deliveries is due solely to sanctions, which caused problems with the maintenance and repair of Siemens gas pumping units.
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