ST. PETERSBURG, October 21. /TASS/. The damaged lines of the Nord Stream gas pipeline system can be repaired from a technical standpoint, while supplies through the intact pipeline could resume in the near future, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters.
"One of the four lines is operational. If European consumers - or European countries and politicians - are willing, gas could certainly be supplied through this line. It is up to the Europeans, primarily Germany, since the pipeline runs to Germany. As for the other three lines, as previously mentioned, they can technically be repaired if there is a need, rationale, or necessity," he said.
Novak pointed out that restarting supplies through the sole surviving Nord Stream line would probably not require much time from a technical perspective.
On September 26, 2022, an unprecedented act of terrorism hit the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, leaving only one of the system’s four lines - a Nord Stream 2 pipeline - intact. The 1,224-kilometer Nord Stream pipeline, running along the Baltic Sea bed from Vyborg, Russia, to Greifswald, Germany, has an annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters. Construction of Nord Stream 2, which has an identical capacity, was completed on September 10, 2021, but the pipeline was never put into operation. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has initiated a criminal case into an act of international terrorism.