On Friday, Russian state energy giant Gazprom said it would not resume flows through the pipeline on Saturday as planned because it had detected an oil leak at its Portovaya compressor station. The pipeline has been shut since Wednesday for maintenance.
It didn’t give a timeline of when exports might resume, CNN reported.
“Until the issues on the operation of the equipment are resolved, gas supplies to the Nord Stream gas pipeline have been completely stopped,” Gazprom said in a statement.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline is a key artery carrying Russia’s vast gas supplies to Europe, accounting for about 35% of Europe’s total Russian gas imports last year.
It flows directly to Germany, the bloc’s biggest economy, which is particularly reliant on Moscow’s gas to power its homes and heavy industry.
But Russia has been in an energy standoff with Europe since it launched a military operation in Ukraine in late February.
Since June, Gazprom has slashed flows through Nord Stream 1 to just 20% of its capacity, citing maintenance issues and a dispute over a missing turbine caught up in Western export sanctions.
MA/PR