Russia will halt natural gas supplies to Europe for three days at the end of the month via its main pipeline into the region, state energy giant Gazprom says, piling pressure on the region as it seeks to refuel ahead of winter.
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The unscheduled maintenance order on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which runs under the Baltic Sea to Germany, deepens an energy stand-off between Moscow and Brussels which has already helped send inflation surging in the region and raised the risk of rationing and recession.
Gazprom said on Friday the three-day shutdown was because the pipeline's only remaining gas compressor requires maintenance, yet the move will bring further disruption particularly for Germany, which depends largely on deliveries from Moscow to power its industry.
"We are monitoring the situation closely with the Federal Network Agency," am official for Germany's economy ministry said.
The shutdown, to run from August 31-September 2, follows a 10-day scheduled annual maintenance that took place in July, and raised fears over whether Russia would resume supplies, which have been reduced since mid-June.
Ukraine's gas transmission system operator said it and the Polish gas pipeline system have the capacity to compensate for the Nord Stream halt, and allow Russian gas to reach Europe.
Germany has had to give Uniper - its largest importer of Russian gas and the highest-profile corporate victim of Europe's energy crisis so far - a 15 billion euro ($A22 billion) bailout after Russia drastically cut flows, forcing it to buy gas elsewhere at much higher prices.
The broader Germany economic impact was highlighted in producer price data on Friday, which in July saw their highest ever increases, both year-on-year and month-on-month, as energy costs skyrocket.
The Nord Stream pipeline had already been running at just a fifth of its capacity, stoking fears that Russia could halt flows completely heading into the winter heating season and make it more difficult to fill up storage facilities.
Before Gazprom announced the shutdown, gas prices in Europe remained close to five-month highs, while US gas prices reversed course and were up 1.2 per cent after the news.
Germany has made targeted efforts to fill up its storage facilities to prepare for the upcoming northern winter with levels standing at 78 per cent as of August 17, slightly more than the about 76 per cent for the European Union as a whole.
Gazprom said maintenance work at the remaining Trent 60 gas compressor station would be carried out together with Siemens Energy.
The Russian firm previously blamed faulty or delayed equipment for lower flows. Germany says this is a pretext to hurt its economy.
Siemens, which is in charge of maintaining the Nord Stream 1 turbines, declined to comment.
One of the Nord Stream 1 turbines is stuck in Germany after undergoing maintenance in Canada.
Germany has said it could be transported but Moscow keeps saying sanctions have prevented the equipment from being shipped back to Russia.
Earlier, senior German politicians had rejected suggestions gas shortages could be alleviated by allowing the suspended Nord Stream 2 pipeline to go into service, something the Kremlin has suggested as a solution.
"I strongly suggest we spare ourselves the humiliation of always asking (Russian President Vladimir) Putin for something that we're not going to get," Kevin Kuehnert, number two in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party, said in an interview with website t-online.
"The dependence on him has to end once and for all."
Australian Associated Press
