MOSCOW, December 22. / TASS /. The physical flow of gas through the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline to Germany was stopped for the second day in a row due to Gazprom's refusal to book pumping capacities for today, according to the data from gas transmission operator Gascade made avaialble on Wednesday.
The transnational gas pipeline Yamal - Europe passes through the territory of Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany. The design capacity of the pipe is 32.9 bln cubic meters of gas per year. The physical flow of gas to Germany through Yamal-Europe is formed as the difference between the renominations (revised pumping orders) for the supply in the forward direction and the opposite (reverse to Poland).
On December 21, the gas holding again did not book capacities for the transit of natural gas through Poland via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline for December 22. Gazprom itself noted that the company supplies gas to Europe in accordance with the requests of consumers in accordance with the existing contracts.
At the same time, reverse gas supplies via the gas pipeline from Germany to Poland are under way. The direction of gas pumping through the pipeline depends on the requests that the gas transmission operator receives from customers. Gas flow direction may change due to higher nominal bids (nominations) for pumping in one direction or another. If customers want to change their nominations, the so-called re-nominations for gas supplies through the pipe are formed.
On December 17, Gazprom began to reduce the volume of reservations for gas transit through the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, a day-ahead auction Gazprom also did not book capacities but ordered a pumping volume of 26.8 mln cubic meters against 31.4 mln cubic meters the previous days. The pumping capacity gradually decreased to 5.2 mln cubic meters on December 18, 4.2 mln cubic meters. on December 19 and 3.8 mln cubic meters on Monday December 20
On December 20, Gazprom did not book transit capacities for Tuesday, December 21 at all, as a result of which on the morning of December 21, the physical flow of gas through the pipeline went in the opposite direction from Germany to Poland.
Gazprom chose to book daily at an auction capacity in December for pumping gas across Yamal - Europe. In November, the holding did not pre-order additional capacities for gas transit through Poland for December.