Russia hasn't made any decision yet on whether or not it will repair the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, which were sabotaged at the end of September, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
"No decisions have been made on this matter," Peskov told reporters in Moscow, referring to whether Russia would proceed with repairs on the damaged sections of the Nord Stream in the Baltic Sea.
Putin's spokesman was also commenting on the withdrawal of the Canadian exemption from sanctions against Russia that it granted earlier this year to a company repairing gas turbines for Russia's Gazprom.
Gas leaks in each of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines were discovered at the end of September from the infrastructure just outside Swedish and Danish territorial waters in the Baltic Sea.
Russia hasn't ruled out the possibility of repairing the gas pipelines, as it said in early October, "The Russian side does not rule out the possibility of repairing gas pipelines, but a decision on this can be made after examining the site and assessing the extent of damage to gas pipelines."
An investigation launched by the Swedish authorities concluded that the leaks were the result of detonations, likely the result of "serious sabotage".
Sweden, Denmark, and Germany are also jointly investigating the incident with the gas pipelines built to carry Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
Nord Stream 2 was never put into operation after Germany axed the certification process following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia, for its part, shut down Nord Stream 1 indefinitely in early September, claiming an inability to repair gas turbines because of the Western sanctions.
At the end of October, Russia accused the UK Navy of being involved in the explosions that put the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines out of commission.
In response, the UK Ministry of Defence said that "To detract from their disastrous handling of the illegal invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defence is resorting to peddling false claims of an epic scale."
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Comments
If the EU continues to insist that it will continue to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, then there is no justification for Russia to repair the sabotaged gas pipelines.
Without repair the two pipelines will become rusty and probably usable. And while Russia will incur some financial loss, Western insurance companies, banks and European partners particularly Germany will have to bear a far larger share of the losses.
Dr Mamdouh G Salameh
International Oil Economist
Global Energy Expert