Iran Press/ Europe: The process of returning and installing the turbines may take time over political differences with Canada and additional technical checkups. Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action told Izvestia that they are in touch with Ottawa on this issue, while Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson confirmed that his country would return the equipment.
The analysts say that Europe has nothing to replace Russian gas with, given that up to 46% of its supplies come from Moscow, and it is complicated to use LNG for this purpose since its volumes are insufficient.
"Executive Director of the Capital Market Department at Univer Capital Artem Tuzov doubts that the Siemens turbines will return to Nord Stream 1 anytime soon, saying: "Some time will be needed to check all systems as well."
He added: "The return won't be swift. It will take from two to four weeks to return them to Gazprom and then there is a long period of testing the turbines to see how properly they were repaired. Nobody would want to install the turbines that risk breaking down after repairs in an unfriendly country. Thus, the realistic time of launching the turbines and returning Nord Stream 1 to its designed capacity is two-three months. So, the risk of growing gas prices in Europe remains," he said.
Earlier, GIIGNL, the international group of LNG importers, forecasted that the EU would keep experiencing problems with the gas deficit for the next couple of winters.
"Russia's share of natural gas supplies to Europe is up to 46%, and the EU simply has nothing to replace it with," BitRiver Financial Analyst Vladislav Antonov maintained. In his opinion, amid the deficit of energy products and high prices, the authorities will curb hot water supplies, dim street lights, close swimming pools, and shut down energy-consuming equipment. "Due to its lack of foresight, instead of green energy, Europe will have to switch to non-ecological coal," he added.
Additionally, Europe may shut down its more energy-intensive enterprises in the chemical industry, according to Associate Professor at the Russian Government's Financial University Valery Andrianov. Nevertheless, he concluded that the main burden would be borne by ordinary people who will have to pay much higher power bills and possibly really freeze next winter.
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