Canada gives 'time-limited' permit to Siemens to return Nordstream 1 turbine to Germany

Canada has decided to allow the return of the repaired Siemens turbine to Germany for the Nordstream 1 pipeline, Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson has said. Jonathan Wilkinson in a statement released on Twitter said that Canada will "grant a time-limited and revocable permit for Siemens Canada" to return the repaired Nordstream 1 turbines to Germany. Wilkinson said that the Canadian government has taken the decision to support Europe's ability to access reliable and affordable energy as they continue to "transition away from Russian oil and gas."

In the statement, Jonathan Wilkinson noted that the absence of a necessary supply of natural gas will affect the economy of Germany and Germans could be unable to heat their homes during winter. Wilkinson said that Canada will continue to impose sanctions against Russia amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. He said that Ottawa will work with European allies as they continue to make efforts to end dependency on Russian gas imports at the earliest. The decision of the Canadian government comes after Russia's energy giant Gazprom in June announced that it will be reducing the natural gas supplies over the Nord Stream pipeline 1 to 40% citing the delayed return of equipment being repaired by Germany's Siemens in Canada. 

Canada announced the decision ahead of the shutdown of Nord Stream 1 for annual maintenance on July 11, according to AP. Reportedly, the annual maintenance work took 10 days in previous summers. Earlier in June, German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck announced the second phase of Germany’s three-stage emergency plan for natural gas supplies. Germany imports around 35% of gas from Russia for its power industry and generating electricity. 

Canada intends to impose additional sanctions against Russia 

Meanwhile, Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly has announced that the country plans to impose additional sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Joly stated that Canada intends to expand the existing embargoes against Russia's oil, gas, chemical and industrial manufacturing sectors. The new sanctions that will be announced by Canada will ban Canadian services that work for the manufacturing of goods made for Russia's chemical, gas and oil sectors. According to Melanie Joly, the new barrage of sanctions that will be announced by Canada will target land, pipeline transport and the manufacturing of computer, electronic and electrical equipment as well as metals and transport.

(With Inputs from AP)

Image: AP