Nord Stream 1 resumes gas deliveries to Germany after maintenance

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks at a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, July 20, 2022. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

Currently, gas storage facilities in Germany are 65.1 percent filled, according to the BNetzA. However, if Russian gas supplies stay at this low level, it would "hardly be possible to achieve a storage level of 90 percent by November without additional measures."

BERLIN, July 21 (Xinhua) -- After ten days of maintenance work on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, gas deliveries from Russia to Germany resumed on Thursday morning.

"Nord Stream AG has successfully completed all planned maintenance works on its twin gas pipelines within the scheduled period," the operator said in a statement.

Although gas flows have now reached the pre-maintenance level, which corresponds to 40 percent utilization of the total pipeline capacity, the missing volumes and the political instability gave "no reason to sound the all-clear yet," said Klaus Mueller, president of the country's Federal Network Agency (BNetzA).

"We need (to take) a long breath, the winter is yet to come," said Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck during a press conference on Thursday.

Habeck announced further government measures to save energy, including stricter requirements for filling gas storage facilities, which in the future must be at 95 percent of the capacity by November 1, up from 90 percent previously.

Currently, gas storage facilities in Germany are 65.1 percent filled, according to the BNetzA. However, if Russian gas supplies stay at this low level, it would "hardly be possible to achieve a storage level of 90 percent by November without additional measures."

Gas pipes are seen at a natural gas storage facility operated by Hungarian Gas Storage Ltd. in the village of Zsana, Hungary, May 20, 2022. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)

Natural gas is a "major energy source" for both industry and households in Germany, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Thursday. In 2020, 31 percent of the German industry ran on natural gas.

European gas prices have fallen after the restart of Russian gas deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. The front-month contract in the European reference market TTF fell to 148 euros (150 U.S. dollars) per MWh baseload in the afternoon, about 4 percent below yesterday's settlement price.

"(The relaunch of) gas deliveries from Russia through the strategically important Nord Stream 1 pipeline is the reason for (this)," Christoph Schmitz of r2b energy consulting told Xinhua on Thursday.

After some speculation as to whether Russia might use the maintenance work as an excuse to suspend deliveries for longer than contractually agreed, "expectations of renewed deliveries increased in recent days," said Schmitz.

Germany has been highly dependent on gas imports: in 2021, net gas imports translated to 904.5 billion kilowatt hours, while around 5 percent were generated from domestic production, according to Destatis.

The European Commission proposed on Wednesday that member states should voluntarily reduce their gas demand by 15 percent to ease the tight supply situation. However, there is an option to make this reduction mandatory by declaring a "Union Alert." (1 euro = 1.02 U.S. dollars)

A man shows gas consumption on a meter in downtown Budapest, Hungary, on July 13, 2022. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)