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Energy crisis in Europe

Gas flow to Germany frozen due to Gazprom’s refusal to book capacities, says operator

Reverse deliveries in the opposite direction to Poland have not begun either

© Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. The physical flow of gas through the Yamal-Europe pipeline to Germany has been halted due to Gazprom's refusal to book pumping capacities for Tuesday, according to the data of the Gascade gas transmission operator.

Reverse deliveries in the opposite direction to Poland have not begun either.

The physical flow of gas to Germany through the Yamal-Europe pipeline emerges as the difference between the revised pumping orders for the supplies forward and backward (reverse supplies to Poland). Currently, there is no gas flow through the conduit.

On Monday, Gazprom repeatedly did not book capacities for the transit of natural gas through Poland via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline for December 21.

Since Friday, the Russian gas producer has been reducing the volume of reservations for gas transit through Yamal-Europe. On Friday, the company did not book capacities at a day-ahead auction, but at an intraday auction, it ordered a pumping volume of 26.8 million cubic meters against 31.4 million cubic meters in the previous days. After that, the gas giant booked 5.2 million cubic meters on Saturday, 4.2 million cubic meters on Sunday and 3.8 million cubic meters on Monday.

In December, Gazprom preferred to book capacities for pumping gas across Yamal-Europe daily. In November, the company did not pre-order additional capacities for gas transit through Poland for December. Gazprom made it clear that it could promptly book additional capacities for a shorter period, say for a week or for a 24-hour period.

The Yamal-Europe transnational gas pipeline stretches across the territory of four countries: Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany. The design capacity of the conduit is 32.9 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

The direction of gas pumping through the pipeline depends on the requests that the gas transmission operator receives from customers. The gas flow direction may change due to higher nominal orders (nominations) for pumping in one direction or another. If customers want to change their orders, they form what is known as re-nominations for gas supplies through the pipeline.

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