Russia stopped the flow of gas into Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline this morning, citing maintenance and repairs.
Gazprom, the Russian state energy company, turned off the pipeline at 4am Moscow time on Wednesday morning.
"Supply via Nord Stream has been completely stopped, today scheduled preventive work is starting at the gas pumping unit," the statement said.
The German government said it received no official correspondence that maintenance work would be undertaken and that the only information it received was via Gazprom’s statement.
The work would last for three days, according to reports, and Gazprom said it would then restore pumping at the level of 33mln cubic meters per day if there were no technical malfunctions.
Gazprom said the suspension of the pipeline was necessary for maintenance and scheduled preventive work on the only gas compressor unit remaining in operation, the local Tass agency said.
Nord Stream 1 stretches over 700 miles from St Petersburg to north-eastern Germany via the Baltic Sea.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and sanctions were leveled on Russian organisations and citizens, supply from the pipeline has been cut to 40% of expected levels, with Gazprom each time citing the need for maintenance and repairs.
In July, the pipeline was shut down for 10 days but only returned to 20% capacity, with Russia claiming one gas turbine made by Siemens Energy was not returned due to sanctions, though the company has since shipped the turbine.
Since the war in Ukraine, gas supplies to Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Poland have been shut down completely, with reduced flows via other pipelines, according to the Guardian.