Russia Says ‘No Decisions’ Made on Fixing Nord Stream Pipelines, Seeks Other Gas Buyers

A top Kremlin spokesman told reporters Thursday that neither the Russian side nor European vendors have decided if rebuilding the severely damaged Nord Stream natural gas pipelines will be worth it.

The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines connect Russia to northern Europe, allowing for facilitated transport of natural gas. Nord Stream 2 reached near completion last year, in part thanks to leftist President Joe Biden lifting sanctions on the project, but was never used as its inauguration was canceled following Russian leader Vladimir Putin announcing a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had warned in June of last year that Nord Stream 2 was a “weapon” Russia would use to fuel violence against his country, expressing outrage and disappointment with Biden.

Governments whose international waters the pipelines cross began reporting a series of suspicious leaks along the pipeline in September. The Swedish government confirmed four major leaks and extensive damage. Multiple governments affected have declared the leaks a result of sabotage – and, in November, a Swedish prosecutor claimed that the government had found traces of explosions on the affected pipeline parts. No official investigators have identified a potential culprit, however. Various Russian and European officials have accused each other of the bombing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday, as the pipeline neared three months of disrepair, that no party involved had moved forward regarding repairs. The Russian news agency Tass quoted Peskov as saying that neither the Russian nor European authorities with power to do so had decided whether to repair the pipelines or not, much less when to do so.

“It has not yet come down to repairs, no decisions have been made on this matter,” Peskov reportedly said. “So far there are no decisions on launching the remaining line.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov (Alexey Nikolsky/AFP/Getty Images)

Shortly after the discovery of the leaks, German government officials, through anonymous channels, warned that urgent repair was necessary to ensure that the pipelines would function again. Tagesspiegel, a German newspaper, cited an anonymous government source there warning that the pipelines could be “destroyed” forever without an immediate response, and that the pipes were beginning to fill with salt water.

In this picture provided by Swedish Coast Guard, a leak from Nord Stream 2 is seen, Wednesday, September 28, 2022. (Swedish Coast Guard via AP)

Part of the reason for delays on repairs, Peskov claimed, were sanctions on the Russian government in response to the Ukraine invasion. The government of Canada this week announced that it would rescind a waiver on sanctions previously in place to allow Canadian companies to aid in the maintenance and repair of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Russia had previously shipped gas turbines used to pump the fuel through the pipelines to Montreal for repair. Canadian officials said this week they ended the waiver in part on the grounds that the pipelines were not in use.

“Of course, the turbines need service and repair. Therefore, these sanctions will continue to affect not only those targeted, but also European consumers,” Peskov said on Thursday, referring to the Canadian government decision.

Peskov also claimed that investigations into how the leaks came about have yet to yield any meaningful conclusions.

The Nord Stream AG consortium described the damage to the pipelines in September as “unprecedented.” As of October, over 150 feet of Nord Stream 1 no longer existed as a result of the destruction, according to the Danish government. Danish officials said at the time that explosions appeared to have essentially erased chunks of the pipeline.

Peskov’s lukewarm reaction to the possibility of repairing the Nord Stream pipelines occurred on the same day that other Russian officials stated Moscow was in the market for new natural gas customers outside of Europe and boasted that Chinese demand for Russian gas is surging enough to potentially soon overshadow Europe.

“As of today, we see opportunities for continuing our LNG projects, which is why plans to build up the segment remain in place,” Russian First Deputy Minister of Energy Pavel Sorokin said on Thursday, according to Tass. “Moreover, we believe that they should be intensified because it enables us to virtually reach any point in the world and provides us with some additional flexibility.”

A senior official at the Russian gas company Gazprom boasted on the same day that China may buy more natural gas than the entirety of the European Union in the near future.

“China’s gas demand has grown at an astonishing rate of more than 13 percent per year since the turn of the century. During this time, China’s gas consumption increased by over 350 bln cubic meters,” the official, Gazprom deputy department head Kirill Polous, said. “If European gas demand continues to diminish, it is extremely likely that in the near future, China’s yearly gas consumption will exceed that of the EU.”

“In the long term, we expect an increase in the export niche for gas supplies to China and plan to continue working to fill it,” he predicted.

“The European Union essentially continues consuming our goods and services but restrains back flows. The situation of such imbalances cannot last forever. What should we do?” he asked. “We will look for other, more promising partners in proactively growing regions of the global economy. These are Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. We will redirect supplies of our energy resources right to the markets of friendly states.”

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