Russia’s Gazprom cuts off gas supply to Germany for ‘three-day maintenance on Nord Stream pipeline’ [Video]

Russian energy giant Gazprom cut off its gas supplies to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for maintenance work on Wednesday, further raising tensions on an already taut electricity market.

Entsog, the operator of the pipeline, announced that gas deliveries had been halted shortly before 0600 GMT.

The three-day works at a compressor station are ‘necessary’, Gazprom has said, adding that they had to be carried out after ‘every 1,000 hours of operation’.

But Germany’s Federal Network Agency chief Klaus Mueller has called it a ‘technically incomprehensible’ decision, warning that it was likely just a pretext by Moscow to wield energy supplies as a threat.

Experience shows that Moscow ‘makes a political decision after every so-called maintenance’, he said, adding that ‘we’ll only know at the beginning of September if Russia does that again’.

Europe has been on edge over soaring energy prices as Russia curbed its gas deliveries in …