By Anna Borisova, BloombergNEF
The EU court’s decision on Sept. 10 restricted Opal pipeline capacity available to Gazprom by around 34 million cubic meters per day. The reduction in the physical flow on Nord Stream was however two times lower than expected due to a boost in the utilization of the non-affected segments of the route.
The EU court’s decision of Sept. 10 that took effect restricted access to 12.8 billion cubic meters per year on Opal pipeline for Russia’s gas major. The pipeline is a part of Russia’s only direct gas export route to Europe. Flowing initially through Nord Stream, gas then transits overland through either the Opal or NEL pipelines in Germany before reaching the rest of the European network.
The Russian gas exports via Nord Stream reduced only by 16 mcm/d after the EU’s decision was implemented. The reduction in the physical flow was lower, since NEL, the western overland leg of Nord Stream, was running at around 71 mcm/d, which is 7 mcm/d above its nameplate capacity. In the past such high physical flow was never sustained for more than a couple of days.
The physical flow on NEL pipeline
The impact of the EU’s court decision was also offset by a higher utilization of the Opal capacity not affected by the EU court’s decision. The flow at Gross Koris - an exit point from Opal to the Gaspool market area - seems to have run at almost 200% of its official nameplate capacity over last weekend. This coincided with an increase of the flow from Germany to Czech Republic at Hora Svate Kateriny, which together with Brandov is a part of a superpoint VIP Gaspool - Brandov.
The physical flow at the sub-segments of the Nord Stream route
The re-routing via Ukraine is currently limited due to the maintenance works on the Velke Kapusany border point between Ukraine and Slovakia. The works are expected to reduce the exit capacity from Ukraine by 61% to 118 mcm/d until Sept. 23, according to the website of eustream.
