Russian gas flows via Yamal pipeline reversed for second day

It had not booked capacity for exports via Yamal for Wednesday. European gas prices hit a new record high on Tuesday after Yamal switched direction, a move the Kremlin said had no political implications, while two big German customers said Gazprom was meeting supply obligations.

Russian gas flows via the Yamal-Europe pipeline to Germany continued to flow in reverse mode for a second day on Wednesday, , data from German network operator Gascade showed, keeping European gas prices high.

European gas prices hit a new record high on Tuesday after Yamal switched direction, a move the Kremlin said had no political implications, while two big German customers said Gazprom was meeting supply obligations. The flows at the Mallnow metering point on the German-Polish border were going east from Germany into Poland at an hourly volume of around 1,180,000 kilowatt hours (kWh/h) on Wednesday and are expected to stay at these levels for the rest of the day, the data shows.

On Wednesday, the front-month wholesale Dutch gas price , the European benchmark, was trading at 177 euros ($199.92) per megawatt hour, close to the all-time high of nearly 185 euros hit in the previous session. Gazprom has been booking extra capacity at auctions for delivery via Ukraine and to Germany via the Yamal route when it sees requests. It had not booked capacity for exports via Yamal for Wednesday.

European gas prices hit a new record high on Tuesday after Yamal switched direction, a move the Kremlin said had no political implications, while two big German customers said Gazprom was meeting supply obligations. Nominations for Wednesday's volumes at the Velke Kapusany metering point on the Slovakia-Ukraine border, another major route to Europe, were for 898,439.2 megawatt hours (MWh), or 82.6 million cubic metres, roughly 5% below the levels seen so far in December.