Russia holds back gas supplies to keep the gas market in check.
Gas flowing via the Yamal Europe pipeline, which normally travels west from Russia to Europe, was in reverse Monday, according to data from Gascade, a German network operator. Volumes were in line with last week’s levels.
This week will mark the ninth week that the link between Poland & Germany has operated in the opposite direction since Dec. 21. This is putting upward pressure upon European gas prices.
The flow from Germany to Poland via Mallnow was at 1.5 million kilowatt-hours per hour (kWh/h), Monday morning. This is unchanged from the levels over the past week.
What would a war in Ukraine mean for Europe’s energy crisis?
Russia has shown no sign of increasing its gas flow to Europe as the threat of war grows evermore.
According to the latest auction results, Gazprom, the state-owned energy giant Gazprom, has again decided not to book any pipeline space in March for gas delivery to Germany via the Yamal-Europe link.
Since December, westbound supplies via that route were halted. The company did not purchase additional transit capacity through Ukraine.
Russian supplies have been restricted for months, causing prices to reach record highs and a European energy crisis. A conflict with Ukraine could disrupt supplies and add more pressure to the market.
The bids to transport gas from Germany to Poland will continue to be renewed or bids at 1.5 million kWh/h up to Tuesday morning. The pipeline accounts for approximately 15% of Russia’s annual westbound gas supply to Europe and Turkey.
Gazprom, Russia’s gas export monopoly, has not yet ordered transit capacity via this route for February.
It also didn’t book capacity for the second or third quarters.
