© Reuters. Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran, Iran July 19, 2022. President Website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
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(Reuters) – Stepping up an energy war between Russia and the West, Moscow has announced it will keep its main gas pipeline to Germany shut and G7 countries said they planned a price cap on Russian oil exports.
ENERGY
* Russia’s Gazprom (MCX:) said Siemens Energy was ready to carry out repairs on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline but there was nowhere available to carry out the work, a suggestion Siemens Energy denied and said it had not been asked to do the job.
* Gazprom’s statement came a day after it said it would not resume gas supply to Germany via Nord Stream 1 until an oil leak it said it had detected in a turbine was fixed. It said the repairs could only be carried out at a specially fitted workshop.
* Germany’s gas supply situation is currently guaranteed but the situation is tense and further deterioration cannot be ruled out, the country’s network regulator said after Gazprom extended the Nord Stream 1 outage.
* The European Union expects Russia to respect existing energy contracts but is prepared to meet the challenge if it fails to do so, Economic Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said.
* G7 finance ministers agreed in Friday to impose a price cap on Russian oil aimed at slashing revenues for Moscow’s war in Ukraine while keeping crude flowing to avoid price spikes, but their statement left out key details.
NUCLEAR PLANT
* Ukrainian forces attempted to capture the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in an attack on the facility on Friday night, Russia’s defence ministry said in its daily briefing.
* Russia said its forces foiled the attack with strikes from military helicopters and fighter jets, destroying 20 Ukrainian vessels and causing others to scatter and call off the attack.
* Reuters was unable to verify the report.
* Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations about attacks on the power plant, Europe’s largest nuclear energy station, in recent months.
* Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call that his country can play a facilitator role regarding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, his office said.
QUOTE
“Unfortunately we haven’t heard the main thing from the IAEA, which is the call for Russia to demilitarise the (nuclear power) station,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday in a video streamed to a forum in Italy.