Uniper

Natural gas in Europe rose almost 30% in morning trading, the first day since Russia announced it would indefinitely suspend one of its main pipelines to the EU, Nord Stream 1.

Financial markets have been rattled by the shutdown of Russia's Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, as energy pressure on European economies intensifies as winter approaches. The euro fell to a two-year low this morning in early trading on Monday after Russian energy company Gazprom extended the shutdown of its gas pipeline to Germany on Friday night.

The Kremlin said on Monday the halt of gas deliveries to Germany via the Nord Stream pipeline was caused by Western sanctions that prevent the maintenance of its infrastructure.

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.

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.

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 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.

Ukraine has offered to provide its gas transmission network for the delivery of Russian gas to Europe after Nord Stream 1 has been failing so much lately and constantly having to shut down the gas on it.

"Gazprom" announced that it will stop the gas on this pipeline again for a technical inspection from August 31 to September 2.