That could takes hours, days... or months.

GAZPROM ISSUES STATEMENT ON NORD STREAM 1 MAINTENANCE

GAZPROM: TRANSPORT OF GAS TO THE NORD STREAM PIPELINE HAS BEEN COMPLETELY HALTED UNTIL FAULTS ARE RECTIFIED

GAZPROM: DURING ROUTINE MAINTENANCE WORKS OIL LEAKAGE WAS DETECTED

GAS SUPPLIES TO NORD STREAM FULLY STOPPED

GAZPROM STATEMENT GIVES NO TIME FRAME FOR RESTART OF GAS SUPPLY THROUGH NORD STREAM 1

The "shocking development" is a massive blow to Europe, which is scrambling to fill up its gas storage ahead of winter and which has been trying to guess Moscow's next steps in the energy war for weeks.

To quote Walter Sobchak, "Mark it zero" for the foreseeable future.

That means that Europe will now be forced to rely even more on... well... Russian gas, in the form of much more expensive LNG resold by China. And after tumbling by more than 50% in the past few days, we fully expect European gas prices are about to go super parabolic and take out all time highs as soon as trading returns on Monday.