Gentiloni spoke after Russia scrapped a Saturday deadline to restart flows of a key natural gas route to Germany, deepening Europe’s difficulties securing winter fuel. Russian state energy company Gazprom extended the shutdown of natural gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany on Friday night. Gazprom said supplies would remain interrupted indefinitely after the leak was detected. He said the pipeline will not restart until repairs are fully implemented. The move came hours after G7 countries agreed to impose a price cap on Russian oil in a bid to stem the flow of capital to Vladimir Putin’s regime. Nord Stream 1 is the single largest natural gas pipeline from Russia to Europe and has the capacity to deliver 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. Continuous supplies through the pipeline are seen as vital to prevent a deepening of the energy crisis. Asked about the disruption of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, Gentiloni said: “We are not afraid of Putin’s decisions. We ask them to respect their contracts, but if they don’t, we are ready to react.” Gentiloni pointed to high levels of natural gas storage across the EU and plans to cut energy consumption as a sign that the continent is bracing for a harsh winter. Speaking on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti Forum in northern Italy, he said measures to help consumers with rising bills should be targeted and not include higher debt levels. He also said other nations might join a price cap on Russian oil agreed by G7 finance ministers on Friday. “We discussed how to build a broader coalition,” he said, referring to the G7 invitation held on Friday. “I’m sure countries like Australia and South Korea could be interested in joining this coalition,” noting that lower oil prices would benefit countries even if they didn’t formally sign the deal. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Since the invasion of Ukraine, Putin’s regime has been accused of stockpiling natural gas by cutting supplies to Europe, pushing prices higher and threatening blackouts. Gazprom said on Saturday Siemens Energy was ready to carry out repairs on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, but there was nowhere available to carry out the work. However, Siemens denied that it had been asked to do the work. “Siemens is engaged in repair work under the current contract, identifying malfunctions … and is ready to fix oil leaks. Except there is nowhere to do the repair,” Gazprom said in a statement on its Telegram channel on Saturday. Siemens Energy said it had not been commissioned to carry out the work but was available, adding that the leak reported by Gazprom did not normally affect the operation of a turbine and could be sealed on site. “Regardless, we have already pointed out several times that there are several additional turbines available at the Portovaya compressor station for the operation of Nord Stream 1,” said a company representative.
