Russia’s Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, which switched back into reverse mode on Sunday morning, continued delivering gas eastward to Poland from Germany at elevated levels on Monday morning, data from German network operator Gascade showed.

The normal, westbound, supplies had resumed temporarily from Germany to Poland over the weekend, but the pattern proved to be short-lived.

Russian gas producer Gazprom GAZP.MM has booked westbound gas transit capacity for the Yamal-Europe pipeline for Monday, but it still has not used it.

Markets have been on edge about possible disruptions to energy supplies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, although Russian commodity exports have not been seriously affected so far. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation”.

Gascade data showed eastbound flows at the Mallnow metering point in Germany increased to 6.8 million kilowatt hours per hour (kWh/h) on Monday morning from between around 1 million kWh/h and 2 million kWh/h overnight.

According to renominations, or preliminary bids, the pipeline is expected to stay in the reverse mode until at least Tuesday morning at the level of some 7.6 million kWh/h.

Gas in the German-Polish section of the pipeline had been flowing eastward since Dec. 21 as buyers in Poland drew on stored supplies from Germany rather than buying more Russian gas at high spot prices. NG/EU

Gazprom briefly resumed supplies via the link to the West at the start of the weekend amid high demand in Europe, especially from Italy, an industry source told Reuters.

The Kremlin-controlled company started to book westbound transit capacity via the pipeline at daily auctions on Friday and Saturday.

The source, who sought anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media, said the prospect for long-term westbound supplies was not clear amid market volatility.

The pipeline usually accounts for about 15% of Russia’s westbound supply of gas to Europe and Turkey.

Gazprom has not ordered any transit capacity for February and March via the route at monthly auctions, nor has it booked capacity for the second and third quarters of the year.
Capacity nominations on another major route for Russian deliveries to Europe, for supply to Slovakia from Ukraine via the Velke Kapusany border point, were steady at 850,544 MWh, remaining above the 850,000 MWh level for fourth day in a row.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Stephen Coates)