Yamal-Europe capacity not booked for Thurs, gas flow to Germany stopped
MOSCOW. May 28 (Interfax) - The transit capacity of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline was not booked for Thursday (morning of May 28 to morning of May 29) by shippers in the course of auctions held on Wednesday and last night, data from the auction platform of Polish gas transport operator Gaz System, GSA Platform, show.
The German gas transport operator confirmed in its data that renomination (latest revised nomination) for receiving gas on the border with Poland for the new day is zero, and the physical flow of gas stopped between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. (7:00 and 8:00 a.m. Moscow time).
The Yamal-Europe pipeline, stretching more than 2,000 km from Torzhok to Frankfurt (Oder), reached design capacity of 33 billion cubic meters per year in 2006. The Polish section, which consists of 683 km of pipeline and five compressor stations, is owned by joint venture EuRoPolGaz and is operated by Gaz System.
The long-term contract to transport Russian gas through Yamal-Europe ended on May 17. Since then, the pipeline capacity has been distributed at auctions for various durations, from a year to several hours.
Russian gas giant Gazprom sharply reduced reservation of the Polish pipeline on the weekend, to 33% on Saturday and 10% on Sunday and Monday, and the physical flow of gas from Poland to Germany was even lower. For Tuesday, only 3.8% of capacity was purchased, which amounts to 3.3 million cubic meters per day. Gaz System has already given notice that a significant decrease in reservation of capacity is expected until May 31.
However, for June, 93% of the transit pipeline's capacity has been purchased and for the third quarter the figure is 80%. An auction will be held on July 6 for the next gas year, which runs from October 2020 through September 2021.