Russia is continuing the closure of a major gas pipeline which could cause issues for many European countries.
Key details
Russia announced it is fully closing the key Nord Stream natural-gas pipeline for maintenance.
The pipeline is owned by energy company Gazprom PJSC. The company said it found a technical fault within the pipeline that connect Russia and Germany, and it will remain shutdown until it is fixed.
It is unsure when that time will be.
Why it’s important
The timing of the announcement seem like the delay might be retaliatory. Earlier on Friday, finance ministers for the Group of 7 countries announced plans to place a price cap on Russian oil.
In Europe, governments are rationing energy and urging companies to put energy saving plans in place. French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne is continuously warning companies of the incoming energy ration.
Borne said the government was working with industry organizations to help limit the impact of the potential rationing and is preparing measures to help support the companies that are impacted the most.
The shutdown of this pipeline will cause Europe to hurry these plans along and become totally independent from Russia.
Backing up a bit
Russia has been slowly being phased out by the U.K. amid its invasion of Ukraine.
In June, five months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.K. imported no fuel from Russia for the first time ever recorded. The U.K. government has planned to phase out all Russian purchases of natural gas and oil after its invasion of Ukraine, and June was a success.
Before Russia invaded Ukraine, they were the number one supplier of refined oil for the U.K. Russia accounted for 24.1% of all imports of refined oil as well as 5.9% of the UK’s crude oil imports, and 4.9% of gas imports.
The U.K. phasing out Russian imports is one of the leading factors of its incoming energy rations.
