Gazprom Once Again Skips Booking Yamal-Europe's Capacity for Gas Transit

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian energy giant Gazprom has once again did not book gas transit capacity via the Yamal-Europe pipeline for delivery through Poland for Friday during an additional auction session, the data from GSA Platform showed.

The offer to book capacity in the amount of 89.1 million cubic meters at the entry point to the Polish section of the pipeline, which is one of the main routes for gas supplies to Europe for Gazprom, remained unclaimed. Gazprom has been booking the pipeline capacities for transit of gas via Poland on a day-by-day basis in December, however, this additional auction session marks 12 days of Garprom not booking Yamal-Europe's Capacity for gas transit.

ExpoForum in the run-up to the 2017 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum

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On 25 December, Sergei Kupriyanov, a spokesman for the Russian energy giant, rejected the allegations that Gazprom shortchanges gas transit to Europe as groundless and false, saying that Gazprom's practice is to book transit capacities to pump as much gas as contracted by clients and that European countries like Germany and France have already taken their contracted volume of fuel but have not placed any new orders.

The price of European gas futures grew by over 27% on 21 December, rising to $2,187 per thousand cubic meters for the first time in history. However, on December 30 the prices went below $1,000 per thousand cubic meters.

The 2,000 kilometres (1,242 miles) long Yamal-Europe gas pipeline is one of the main routes of Russian gas supply to Europe. It passes through the territory of four countries — Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany — and has a capacity of up to 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

The long-term agreement between Gazprom and Poland for the transit of gas through Yamal-Europe ended last year, and for the 2020-2021 gas year, the company booked the pipeline's capacity through an auction.