Russia’s main gas pipeline to Germany went offline for scheduled maintenance on Monday, with fears growing that the flow of gas might not resume after the repairs are completed, threatening potentially disastrous consequences for Europe’s largest economy.
German officials admit they have no idea whether state-controlled gas export monopoly Gazprom will restart deliveries through Nord Stream 1 once the maintenance period comes to an end on July 21.
“We are getting quite different signals from Russia,” Klaus Müller, head of the Federal Network Agency, Germany’s energy regulator, told ZDF TV on Monday. Should Moscow fail to resume supplies on or around July 21 “it would look really bad”, he added.