By Nora Buli

OSLO (Reuters – Russian gas supplies to Europe through the Yamal Europe pipeline reversing direction. On Thursday morning, they flowed from Germany to Poland. Supplies via Ukraine were also eased. This was in accordance with customers’ requests.

Gas flowing eastward from Germany to Poland was switched at Mallnow on the German-Polish border, Thursday morning. The gas had flown westward overnight.

According to data, this change was in accordance with shippers’ nominations. There were no other requests for westward shipping for the remainder of the day.

According to Interfax news agency, Gazprom of Russia (MCX) continues to provide gas via Ukraine to Europe in response to European customers’ requests. The number of European buyers requesting gaz to Europe has dropped to 105.4 millions cubic metres (mcm) today from 108.4mcm.

The nominations for flow into Slovakia through Ukraine via Velke Kapusany border point stood at 936.935 megawatthours (MWh/day) on Thursday. These numbers were down from 968.186 MWh/day, according to data from TSO Eustream.

The flow to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline over the Baltic Sea was at 73.165.350 kWh/h Thursday. This is little change from the 24 hours prior.

CONUNDRUM OF SANCTIONS

The market is concerned about the possibility that Russian gas supplies could be cut off due to increased sanctions being imposed by the West after its invasion of Ukraine.

Although they have been reluctant to sanction oil and gas, the European Union’s envoys plan to ban Russian coal from mid-August.

Josep Borrell is a top EU diplomat and said the package may be adopted on Thursday orFriday. Additionally, the EU would discuss an oil embargo for Russia.

Estonia and Finland are the latest European members to declare their intentions to stop Russian gas delivery by creating a common charter for a floating LNG Terminal.

Lithuania already declared that it had stopped Russian gas imports.

Questions remain about whether or not other countries will accept a Russian request for payment in roubles to fuel deliveries.

Wednesday saw Hungary becoming the first EU member to announce that it would pay in Russian money. Gazprom is buying natural gas from Hungary and companies are waiting for guidance from their governments.