Europe Gas: Prices soar as flows from Russia through Nord Stream 1 drop

Fluxys Belgium SA

16/06/2022 09:58

June 16 (Reuters) - Dutch and British wholesale gas rose on
Thursday as gas flows from Russia to Europe via Nord Stream 1
fell after Gazprom curbed the pipeline’s capacity.
    The Dutch front-month contract  TRNLTTFMc1 was up 15.00
euros at 129.00 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0843 GMT,
having earlier touched 132.00 euros MWh, its highest level since
the beginning of April. 
    The day-ahead contract  TRNLTTFD1  was up 11.70 euros at
128.25 euros/MWh.
    Gazprom said flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would
be curbed to up to 67 million cubic metres (mcm) a day from 1.30
am Moscow time on Thursday (2230 GMT on Wednesday) due to issues
with Siemens made equipment at the Portovaya compressor station
near St Petersburg.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nS8N2V30HB
    The cut means the pipeline is now running at around 40% of
its full capacity.
    “Gazprom’s decision to further cut capacity on Nord Stream1
will have seismic ramifications for the European and global
natgas market. With flows dropping to 67 mcm/d it will be
increasingly hard for storages to be refilled ahead of the
winter,” ICIS analyst Tom Marsec-Manser said on Twitter.
    Gas flows via the Nord Stream 1 into Germany fell to
29,033,806 kilowatt hours per hour (kWh/h), data from the
pipeline operator showed on Thursday, down from levels over
44,000,000 kWh/h on Wednesday.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2Y30CZ
    Several companies such as Italy’s Eni  ENI.MI , Germany’s
Uniper  UN01.DE  and Austria’s OMV  OMVV.VI  have reported lower
gas supply from Russia since the capacity cut.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2Y30EF
    The cut in Russian supply also comes after Freeport LNG, one
of the largest U.S. operators of liquefied natural gas export
terminals, said its operations would remain offline until
September with only partial operation through year end.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2Y12WD
    The British day-ahead contract < TRGBNBPD1> was up 39.00
pence to 264.00 p per therm, while the British weekend
 TRGBNBPWE  contract rose by 20.00 p to 235.00 p/therm.
    In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract
 CFI2Zc1  rose by 0.14 euros to 86.36 euros a tonne.

 (Reporting By Susanna Twidale; Editing by Nina Chestney)
 ((susanna.twidale@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 5424753;))