Russia scraps gas pipeline reopening, stoking European fears

Russia has scrapped a Saturday deadline to resume flows via a major gas supply route to Europe after saying it had discovered a fault in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline during maintenance, deepening Europe's difficulties in securing fuel for winter,   reports  Reuters. Nord Stream 1, which runs under the Baltic Sea to supply Germany and others, had been due to resume operating on Saturday at 0100 GMT after a three-day halt for maintenance. But Gazprom, the state-controlled firm with a monopoly on Russian gas exports via pipeline, said on Friday it could not safely restart deliveries until it had fixed an oil leak found in a vital pipeline turbine. It did not give a new timeframe. Moscow has blamed sanctions, imposed by the West after Russia invaded Ukraine, for hampering routine operations and maintenance of Nord Stream 1. Brussels says this is a pretext and Russia is using gas as an economic weapon to retaliate.