Nord Stream

Germany's gas storage facilities are already 85 percent full, meeting Berlin's October target levels, despite the prolonged shutdown of Russian Nord Stream 1 supplies.

This is according to data published yesterday by the European group of operators "Gas Infrastructure Europe", cited by Reuters and BTA.

EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni has said that the European Union was "well prepared" in the event of a total halt in Russian gas deliveries, thanks to storage capacity and energy-saving measures.     

Gazprom said the gas pipeline to Germany, which was due to open at the weekend, would remain closed until a turbine could be repaired, cutting supplies to Europe indefinitely.

Europe's energy crisis loomed larger on Sept. 2 after Russian energy giant Gazprom said it couldn't resume the supply of natural gas through a major pipeline to Germany for now. The company cited what it said was a need for urgent maintenance work to repair key component- in an announcement made just hours before it had been due to restart deliveries.

Russian state-backed energy company Gazprom is ready to pay the Kremlin 2.5 billion rubles after posting record profits.

The company reported a net profit of 2.5 billion rubles for the first six months of this year. Oil and gas prices rose during that period, pushed up by supply concerns following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has stopped the supply of natural gas through the Nord Stream pipeline, Russian and Western news agencies reported.

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 Russian invasion of Ukraine more than 6 months ago has caused a dramatic spike in natural gas prices and caused repeated energy shocks in Europe. The EU has accused Moscow of using energy as a weapon, while Russia denies this and blames western sanctions for the drop in exports.

The price of natural gas on the Dutch exchange TTF reached 341 euros per megawatt hour yesterday, and electricity supply contracts in Germany and France broke all records. Against this background, the Czech Presidency of the European Union announced that it is preparing an extraordinary meeting of energy ministers.

The price of electricity in Europe jumped by more than 25%, according to the prices of the European Electricity Exchange, Bloomberg reports. That's about 14 times the seasonal average over the past five years. The increase in prices is due to the concerns related to the shutdown of the Nord Stream.