Russia’s Gazprom has cancelled gas condensate exports this month, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, less than a week after a fire at its processing plant in Urengoy curbed gas exports via the Yamal-Europe pipeline.
The Aug. 5 fire at the gas condensate processing facility in the Yamal-Nenets region forced the firm to suspend condensate shipments to the Surgut gas condensate stabilisation plant and lowered gas exports via the Yamal-Europe pipeline.
Gazprom said earlier this week it had restarted its Urengoy facility and resumed supplies of condensate, a type of light oil which is further processed into motor fuels, to the Surgut plant, but in smaller volumes.
Gazprom typically supplies gas condensate to the domestic market but planned to export over 100,000 tonnes of condensate this month during scheduled maintenance at the Surgut plant. Gazprom did not reply to a request for comment on condensate.
“There will be no exports of condensate in August,” one of the sources said. The company has declared force majeure on condensate exports in August, the sources said.
Gas flows via the Mallnow compressor station near the German-Polish border, via the Yamal-Europe pipeline, halved after the accident to 250 gigawatt hours per day (GWh/d) and were down further to 212 GWh/d on Aug 11, Refinitiv data showed.
The Dutch TTF front-month wholesale gas price, a European benchmark, hit a record high of 45.15 euros per megawatt hour on Wednesday, which traders said was partly caused by fears over supply and the reduction in Mallnow flows.
“Gazprom has now switched to withdrawals from storage in North West Europe trying at least partly to offset the drop. What is happening is very concerning for the market,” said Marina Tsygankova, gas analyst at Refinitiv.
In a statement on Wednesday, Gazprom Export, the company’s export arm, said it continued to fulfil its firm obligations on gas deliveries via the Yamal-Europe pipeline, using “available options and routes for gas deliveries.” It did not specify.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Natalia Chumakova, Olga Yagova and Gleb Gorodyankin, Oksana Kobzeva and Katya Golubkova in Moscow; Susanna Twidale in London Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)