Russia's ruptured undersea Nord Stream gas pipelines are set to be sealed up and mothballed as there are no immediate plans to repair or reactivate them, sources familiar with the plans have told Reuters.
Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, each consisting of two pipes, were built by Russia's state-controlled Gazprom to pump 110 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas a year to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
Three of the pipes were ruptured by unexplained blasts in September, and one of the Nord Stream 2 pipes remains intact.
But soaring tensions between Moscow and the West over Russia's invasion of Ukraine had by then already brought Nord Stream 1 to a standstill and prevented its twin, criticised by Washington and Kyiv for increasing Germany's dependence on Russia, ever coming online.
Gazprom has said it is technically possible to repair the ruptured lines, but two sources familiar with plans said Moscow saw little prospect of relations with the West improving enough in the foreseeable future for the pipelines to be needed.
Europe has drastically cut its energy imports from Russia over the past year, while the state-controlled Gazprom's exports outside the former Soviet Union almost halved in 2022 to reach a post-Soviet low of 101 bcm.
One Russian source said Russia saw the project as "buried". Two others said that, while there was no plan to repair the ruptured pipelines, they would at least be conserved for possible reactivation in the future.
Another source familiar with the plans confirmed that the stakeholders are considering conservation.
This would most likely mean sealing the ruptured ends and putting a coating into the pipes to prevent further corrosion from seawater.
One of the Russian sources said that, if the seaborne liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States that Europe is using to offset some of its Russian supplies became much more expensive, Europe might again be ready to buy more from Russia.
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