RIYADH: Russia resumed pumping gas through its biggest pipeline to Germany on Thursday after a 10-day outage, the operator said, easing Europe’s supply concerns amid an economic tit-for-tat with the Kremlin over its invasion of Ukraine.
On the Nord Stream AG website, physical flows were at 21,388,236 kilowatt-hour per hour for 0400 to 0500 GMT, from zero previously.
Europe has been on edge about the restart after the annual maintenance of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, which accounts for more than a third of Russian gas exports to the EU.
“We are in the process of resuming gas transportation. It can take a few hours to reach the nominated transport volumes,” a spokesperson for the operator told Reuters.
Nord Stream 1 transports 55 billion cubic meters a year of gas under the Baltic Sea and has been offline since July 11.
A spokesperson for Austria’s OMV said Gazprom signaled it would deliver around 50 percent of agreed gas volumes on Thursday, levels seen before the shutdown.
On June 14, Russia reduced gas flows to 40 percent of capacity through the pipeline, citing the delay of a turbine being serviced in Canada.
Euro rebounds
Following the opening of Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, the euro rebounded back toward a two-week high to the dollar.
The euro gained 0.42 percent to $1.02215, clawing back most of its retreat from Wednesday, when it hit an intraday peak of $1.0273, the highest since July 6.
The euro had enjoyed three sessions of strong gains this week on expectations the European Central Bank might deliver a big 50 basis-point rate hike and a Reuters report that the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would reopen on time following a 10-day maintenance period, and at the pre-shutdown level of 40 percent.
The link’s operator said gas flows had restarted, but it was not yet clear at what level, with Germany’s network regulator indicating 30 percent of capacity.
Gazprom’s exports to Europe via Ukraine rises
Russian gas producer Gazprom said its supply of gas to Europe through Ukraine via the Sudzha entry point was seen at 42.2 million cubic meters on Thursday, up from 40.1 mcm a day earlier.
An application to supply gas via the Sokhranovka entry point was rejected by Ukraine, Gazprom said.
(With input from Reuters)