The move by the Russian state gas exporter followed the German company Siemens' failure to return gas pumping units to its compressor station in due time.
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Gazprom said that Siemens did not return five of the eight gas pumping units taken for repair work on time from Gazprom's Portovaya compressor station in the Vyborgsky district near St. Petersburg.
The Russian company added that the industry regulator, Rostekhnadzor, had to temporarily ban the use of the pumping units as their motors operated poorly when connected to the pipeline.
Gazprom's daily volume of deliveries stands at 167 million cubic meters. Still, this figure will now be reduced by 40 percent since only three gas compressor units are available at CS Portovaya.
In this regard, the company said that "gas supplies to the Nord Stream gas pipeline can currently be provided in the amount of up to 100 million cubic meters per day."
The Nord Stream pipeline runs from Vyborg (Russia) to Greifswald (Germany), delivering Russian gas to Europe. Some 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year is supplied to the European Union market via the Nord Stream pipeline.
The London ICE exchange revealed that following the news, gas prices in Europe increased almost 11 percent, approaching 1 000 dollars per thousand cubic meters.