LONDON (Reuters) – Russian gas flows to Europe fell on Wednesday after Moscow widened European cuts and halted Dutch, Danish and German contracts over refusals to accept Moscow’s roubles-for-gas payment scheme.
Eastbound gas flows via the Yamal-Europe pipeline from Germany to Poland fell on Wednesday but were in line with nominations, or requests, for gas.
Exit flows at the Mallnow metering point on the German border with Poland stood at 3,404,777 kilowatt hours per hour (kWh/h), down from 5,630,632 kWh/h the previous day, the data showed.
Similarly, nominations for flows into Slovakia from Ukraine via the Velke Kapusany border point fell to 36.8 million cubic metres (mcm) per day, from 37.5 mcm on Tuesday, data from the Ukrainian transmission system operator showed.
Gazprom said its supply of gas to Europe through Ukraine via the Sudzha entry point was projected at 41.2 million cubic metres (mcm) on Wednesday, compared with 42.12 mcm on Tuesday.
The Russian energy giant on Tuesday saif it had fully cut off gas supplies to Dutch trader GasTerra and on Wednesday it cut off gas supplies to Denmark’s Orsted and to Shell Energy for its contract to supply gas to Germany, citing the companies’ failure to make payments in roubles.
However, the German network regulator said on Wednesday that Gazprom’s decision affects only small volumes in Germany, adding that they could be replaced from other sources.
Physical flows to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline across the Baltic Sea were in line with nominations and stood at 73,025,457 kWh/h on Wednesday morning, up from 65,161,979 kWh/h in the previous 24 hours.
(Reporting by Marwa Rashad; Editing by David Goodman)
