Russia halts gas supplies to Germany via Poland
Supplies of Russian Gas to Germany via Poland using the Yamal-Europe pipeline have been halted, reported Interfax with reference to the data of the German gas transport operator GASCADE Gastransport GmbH.
At 08:00-09:00 am Tuesday, the volume of the gas intake at Malnov station on the Polish-German border fell to zero.
The day before, the transit of gas was at 1% of the regular capacity, with about 25.8 thousand cubic meters per day.
Gazprom faced difficulties in supplying gas via Poland after the transit contract concluded in the 1990s expired on May 17. Polish operator Gaz System refused to renew it and moved to sell the pipeline capacity through open auctions.
Since then, the transit capacity available to Gazprom has been rapidly declining. On May 19, the Russian company had booked 93% of the pipe capacity, as of May 20 - 79%, on May 21 - 72%, on May 22 - 74%, on May 23 - only 33%, and on May 24 and 25 - only 10%.
The actual volume was even lower, and on Tuesday the flow through the pipeline completely stopped.
Gazprom’s subsidiary, Gazprom Transgas Belarus, said that the drop in supplies was due to a lack of demand. "The transit of gas through the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline is carried out in accordance with the applications of Gazprom and European gas buyers, so fluctuations in the volume of transit are associated with a decrease in demand," the company explained.
At the end of April, Russian gas supplies to Germany collapsed by 46%. Total exports decreased by 20%. Selling gas is becoming increasingly difficult as storage facilities are filled at record levels for this time of year and prices are near zero.
On Friday, May 22, the spot price of gas at Europe's largest TTF hub in the Netherlands fell to 2,479 euros per MWh. That's $0.78 per million British thermal units, or $27.3 per 1,000 cubic meters.
After a sharp reduction in Gazprom's supplies, the quotes recovered to 4.356 euros per MWh, or $1.34 per million BTE, or $47.1 per thousand cubic meters.
The underground gas storage facilities in Europe are at a record high capacity of 70.29%. On the same day a year earlier, the number was 57.19%.