MOSCOW- Russia's Gazprom has not booked capacity to export gas via the Yamal-Europe pipeline to Europe in the second or third quarter, auction results showed on Monday, as flows remain reversed eastward.
High gas prices have discouraged spot purchases from Russia, with buyers instead tapping stored gas in Europe, where storage levels have fallen below their five-year average.
The section of the pipeline between Poland and Germany has been reversed eastward since December 21, helping drive up European gas prices.
Prices jumped to a record 184.95 euros per megawatt hours (MWh) when the Yamal-Europe system reversed flows.
On Monday, the front-month wholesale Dutch gas price, the European benchmark, was down 2.9% to 78.25 euros per megawatt hour.
Gazprom has the right to book westbound capacity on the Yamal-Europe pipeline at daily, monthly and quarterly auctions.
The West has accused Russia of withholding those flows in order to pressure EU and German regulators to approve the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany across the Baltic Sea.
Russia denies this, saying it fulfils long-term contracts in full and the lack of westbound supply simply reflects a lack of buying from Europe.
Russian troop levels near its border with Ukraine have also caused concern in Europe about a possible conflict disrupting Russian supply, with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saying the EU is in talks with the United States and other suppliers about increasing gas deliveries to Europe.
Gazprom also did not book extra gas transit capacity for exports via the Sudzha and Sokhranovka crossing points into Ukraine for the second quarter, the auction results showed.
Nor did it book capacity via the Velke Kapusany interconnection point on the Slovakia-Ukraine border for the April-June quarter.
Yamal volumes flowing eastward to Poland from Germany via the Mallnow metering point stood at 1.52 million kilowatt hours per hour (kWh/h), up from 1.07 million kWh/h seen in the morning and over the weekend.
The pipeline operator said there were renominations, or bids, for eastbound gas supplies at the same amount of 1.5 million kWh/h until Tuesday morning.
Normally the pipeline accounts for about 15% of Russia's annual gas exports to Europe and Turkey.
Capacity nominations for supply to Slovakia from Ukraine via the Velke Kapusany border point, another major route for Russian deliveries to Europe, stood at 847,777 MWh for Monday, up from a re-nominated 573,699 MWh on Friday and just below a high of 850,143 MWh on Feb 1.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin, additional reporting by Robert Muller in Prague, Oksana Kobzeva Anastasia Lyrchikova Olesya Astakhova in Moscow; editing by Edmund Blair and Jason Neely) ((vladimir.soldatkin@reuters.com; @vsoldatkin;))
