In late October, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Gazprom to send more gas to Europe once it was done replenishing domestic storage tanks. The extra volumes were expected to begin coming to Europe by November 8, but these had not materialised so far. Gas requests into Germany at the Mallnow metering point indicate zero net flows on Monday. Russia has not booked any extra day-ahead capacity at Mallnow.
Gazprom also booked no additional capacity in the gas transit via Ukraine. The company’s electronic sales platform indicates that it would not offer gas for the European spot market this week either. Lower Russian gas flows pushed the Dutch TTF December gas contract by nearly 10% to €81.00 per MWh on Monday before retreating to €76.70 per MWh.
Gazprom’s gas inventories in Europe are at about one-third of the levels a year earlier, although its production and exports are near a record high. This sparked accusations from European politicians that Russia is withholding supplies to manipulate prices and exert pressure on German and European regulators to issue permits for the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The Kremlin has denied these, although it said that gas flows could start a day after Nord Stream 2 received approval.
