Russian Gas Exports to Europe Via Yamal Pipeline Fall Again
Russian natural gas deliveries to Germany through the Yamal-Europe pipeline have fell again on the 19th December after rising briefly from the previous day’s levels, data from German network operator Gascade showed.
By midday, flows at the Mallnow metering point on the German-Polish border were down to an hourly volume of around 370,000 kilowatt hours (kWh/h), falling from the levels of just over 4,000,000 kWh/h briefly seen during the day.
The flows, a major route for Russian gas to Europe which bypasses Belarus, continued to fall from levels on the 18th December when they fell sharply to around 1,200,000 kWh/h from an average of between 9,000,000 to 12,000,000 kWh/h seen in December.
It was not immediately clear why the flows were down. Russian gas exporter Gazprom did not reply to a request for comment.
Russian gas supplies to Europe are closely tied with levels of gas in Gazprom’s storage at home. This week the company started to lift gas from its underground facilities in central Russia, with peak consumption expected in a month.
Gazprom sends gas to Europe via a number of routes and is booking extra capacity – or volumes which come on top of firm contracts – at auctions for delivery via Ukraine and to Germany via the Yamal route.
Gazprom booked no extra supplies via the Yamal pipeline at a monthly auction for December delivery and is taking small export capacity at daily auctions from time to time when it sees requests from customers.
Source: Pipeline & Gas Journal