In an interview with “Stern” and RTL/ntv, former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder suggested using the Nord Stream 2 pipeline for gas deliveries from Russia. That would be beneficial for the Kremlin, but not for Germany.
Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has an idea: In order to prevent a gas bottleneck in Germany, only the Nord Stream 2 pipeline needs to be put into operation. That was “the simplest solution,” he told “Stern” and RTL/ntv. This was also stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Iran in July, when he promised that even after maintenance work on Nord Stream 1, only a reduced amount of gas would flow through this pipeline.
Schröder’s proposal is not surprising. For a long time he was a member of the supervisory board of the Russian state oil company Rosneft and resigned from this post about three months after the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine after great pressure from Germany. He also refrained from becoming a member of the supervisory board of the Kremlin-controlled gas giant Gazprom. The SPD politician is the head of the board of directors of Nord Stream 2.
Against this background, Schröder is absolutely right. The commissioning of Nord Stream 2 would actually be the simplest solution. However, not for Germany, but for the Kremlin.
Nord Stream 2 is owned by Gazprom, runs largely parallel to the sister pipeline Nord Stream 1 through the Baltic Sea and was intended to transport gas directly from Russia to Germany. It is finished but was not put into operation because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The federal government pulled the ripcord at the end of February and put the approval process on hold.
For this reason alone, the federal government is ruling out putting Nord Stream 2 into operation. Approval would be tantamount to capitulation, it would shatter the western alliance against Russia.
Since June, Gazprom has been gradually reducing gas supplies to Germany through Nord Stream1, which are now only 20 percent of maximum capacity. Official reason: technical problems with several turbines. The federal government considers this to be a pretense.
The first turbine serviced in Canada is now waiting in Germany for onward transport to Russia. According to the manufacturer Siemens Energy, everything is prepared for transport and delivery can start immediately. However, Gazprom refuses to take over the turbine, citing missing documents as the reason.
The Kremlin accuses Siemens Energy of not maintaining or repairing the turbines at the compressor station in Portovaya, Russia, in view of the sanctions imposed by the West. The company denies that. “So far we have not received any damage reports from Gazprom. We must therefore assume that the turbines are ready for operation,” says Siemens Energy Siemens Energy turbines can be serviced in Montreal and then executed.»
The fact that the Kremlin is obviously throttling gas deliveries through Nord Stream 1 for political reasons is shown, for example, by the fact that there are alternative routes even without Nord Stream 2 – which Gazprom does not use to compensate for the supply failures to Germany. On the one hand there is the Transgas pipeline, which runs through the Ukraine to Waidhaus in Bavaria. Here, too, Russia has reduced the delivery quantities. On the other hand, there is the Yamal pipeline, which pumped gas via Poland to Mallnow in Brandenburg. She is currently completely still.
Should the federal government cave in and actually grant Nord Stream 2 a permit, that does not mean that gas will actually flow. Instead, Germany would prolong its dependence on Russian gas. “It is clear that Russia wants to provoke an energy crisis in Europe,” says Janis Kluge from the German Science and Politics Foundation (SWP) in an interview with ntv.de. “There is no alternative reality where we help Ukraine to oppose the Russian invasion and where Russia continues to supply us with gas.”
Germany is currently trying to become independent of Russian gas supplies as quickly as possible – for example through alternative suppliers, the construction of liquid gas terminals or the possibility of restarting coal-fired power plants or letting them run longer. In addition, the gas storage tanks are filled to ensure the supply in winter even if there is a gas freeze in Russia.
The prospect of missing gas deliveries from Russia has forced German industry to act. In February, BASF CEO Martin Brudermüller warned of unprecedented damage if no more gas than Russia flowed to Germany. In the meantime, the world’s largest chemical company assumes that, even in the worst case, there will be enough natural gas for the main plant in Ludwigshafen to continue operating – at least to a limited extent. Brudermüller is also confident with regard to Schwarzheide, the Group’s second-largest location in Germany.
The Kremlin’s repeated claims that the full gas supply would be resumed if the West removed the obstacles also aims to slow down this development. The calculus: if the population and industry rely on Russian gas to continue to flow, less will be saved and less intensive searches will be made for alternatives.
According to the SWP scientist Kluge, the reason why Russia has not completely turned off the gas supply to Germany is that the Kremlin is waiting for the moment when it can do the greatest damage to Germany. “The earliest point in time is not necessarily the hardest. If Russia had cut off our gas in March, there would long have been a completely different crisis policy with much more massive austerity measures. There would be no doubt that we would have to get through the winter without Russian gas, and we would have had six months to prepare,” said Kluge. There are still people in Germany, including politicians, who hope “that things won’t get that bad.” That is why Germany is currently less prepared for a delivery stop than would be the case if the Kremlin had already turned off the gas tap in March.
You can find the entire joint interview at Stern and in the current issue of “Stern”.
