Breaking news: OPAL gas flows to jump on Wednesday

Day-ahead capacity auctions at the German OPAL natural gas pipeline will resume on Tuesday, its operator said on Monday. This means flows through the pipe will rise from the open on Wednesday.

Last time this capacity was made available to the market on a day-ahead basis, flows jumped by 20 million cubic metres (mcm)/day.

The ban on utilising full capacity on OPAL due to third-party-access regulation was lifted after German regulator BNetzA implemented the change on Monday, following the decision previously made by German and European courts.

This means that German imports of Russian gas via the Nord Stream pipeline can ultimately ramp up to maximum capacity of 150mcm/day over the next month.

OPAL can forward up to 100mcm/day of Nord Stream imports from the Greifswald beaching point southwards to the Czech Republic. OPAL was flowing at a rate of 65mcm/day on Monday morning.

More to follow…