Russia biggest pipeline resumes pumping gas to Europe

Russia resumed pumping gas via its biggest pipeline to Europe on Thursday after a 10-day outage, allaying some of Europe's immediate supply fears but not enough to end the threat of rationing to cope with potential winter shortages.

Supplies via Nord Stream 1, which runs under the Baltic Sea to Germany, were halted for maintenance on July 11 but, even before that outage, flows had been cut to 40% of the pipeline's capacity in a dispute sparked by Russia's invasion of



Ukraine.

Thursday's flows were back at that 40% capacity level, Nord Stream figures showed, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that supplies could be cut further or even stop.

The resumption of Nord Stream supplies at levels that remain well below the pipeline's capacity means Germany, which is particularly reliant on Russian fuel, and other European economies are still struggling to find enough gas for winter.