Russia’s Yamal-Europe Pipeline in Reverse Flow Mode for Fourth Day
Russia’s Yamal-Europe pipeline, which normally sends gas westwards across Poland to Germany, was working in reverse mode for a fourth straight day on the 2nd November and expected to stay that way until the 3rd November, according to data from German operator Gascade.
Flows into Germany at the Mallnow metering point, which lies on the Polish border, stopped early on the 30th November and have not resumed, according to the data. Instead, gas is heading back east across Poland.
The reversal, which neither Russia’s Gazprom, Poland nor Germany have fully explained, has added to market nerves at a time when gas prices have skyrocketed in Europe.
“Gas is still not flowing towards Germany today, which means that there is no demand for transmission via the Yamal pipeline in this direction,” Polish operator Gaz-System said on the 2nd November.
Polish gas monopoly PGNiG said that as of the 1st November it had increased imports from Germany “as planned” and that further supplies from Germany would depend on “gas demand as well as market conditions.”
Gaz-System said that the needs of Polish consumers were being met from the Yamal pipeline “in accordance with the submitted demand”.
A Gascade spokesperson has said separately that it was “not unusual for shippers to use the eastwards direction.”
A gas transit deal between Russia and Poland expired last year, but Gazprom can book transit capacity via the pipeline at auctions: it took a third of total additional capacity offered by the Polish operator Gaz-System for transit via the Kondratki transit point for November.
Asked why Yamal-Europe was in reverse-flow mode, the Kremlin repeated on the 2nd November that Russia was fulfilling or even exceeding its obligations.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, reiterated that Russia remains committed to start pumping additional gas to Europe once domestic storage is replenished, in line with an order given to Gazprom last week by President Putin.
The front-month Dutch benchmark gas contract jumped by over 11% on the 1st November to €74 per megawatt hour (MWh), with traders saying the reversed flows had taken the market by surprise. It was 2% down on the 2nd November at €66.65.
Russia has reached the target level of its domestic gas reserves of around 73 Bcm last week, but Gazprom plans to continue building them until the 8th November.
Source: Pipeline & Gas Journal