The German government has urged citizens to ration their energy use after Russia announced significant cuts to the natural gas supply.
Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom declared this week that it would be reducing gas exports to Germany by 40% through the undersea Nord Stream 1 pipeline. The following day, they announced a further 20% cut, meaning 60% less gas in total travelling from Russia to Germany.
Germany – which is Europe’s biggest economy – receives 35% of its gas from Russia.
Gazprom claims that the reduced gas flow is due to a technical issue, saying that the company cannot maintain the pipeline due to Canadian sanctions on key equipment. However, the German government is sceptical of this claim, alleging that the pipeline should not require maintenance until autumn.
German authorities claim that Russia is simply attempting to further strain the European energy market and increase prices amid its ongoing war with Ukraine.
Speaking on the development this week, German vice chancellor and economy minister Robert Habeck said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is doing what was to be feared from the beginning: he is reducing the volume of gas, not in one go but bit by bit.”
Habeck reiterated his call from last week, where he urged citizens to ration energy usage.
“Gas is coming to Europe — we have no supply problem. But the volumes of gas must be acquired on the market, and it will get more expensive,” he said.
“Now is the time to do so – every kilowatt hour helps in this situation. It is a situation that is serious, but not a situation that endangers supply security in Germany.”