Eastward gas flows via Yamal-Europe halted as Polish storage fills -data

(Reuters) - Eastbound gas flows into Poland from Germany along the Yamal-Europe pipeline were halted on Tuesday with data showing flows had fallen to zero and the country's storage at almost full capacity.

Physical exit flows at the Mallnow metering point on the German border fell to zero from 3,934,808 kilowatt-hours per hour (kWh/h) earlier, data from the Gascade pipeline operator showed.

Flows via Mallnow were in line with clients’ nominations, Polish state-owned pipeline operator Gaz System said.

"There are no other factors impacting reverse flows on the Yamal pipeline,' it said in response to questions from Reuters.

The country's stored gas levels stood at 96% capacity, data from Gas Storage Poland showed, while there has also been a seasonal easing of demand as temperatures rise.

The Yamal-Europe Pipeline usually flows westward, but has been mostly reversed since December as Poland turned away from buying from Russia in favour of drawing on stored gas in Germany.

In May, Warsaw terminated its agreement with Russia, after earlier rejecting Moscow's demand that it pays in roubles.

Russian supplier Gazprom responded by cutting off supply and also said it would no longer be able to export gas via Poland after Moscow imposed sanctions against the firm that owns the Polish section of the Yamal-Europe pipeline.

Poland's storage levels are the EU's highest and up sharply from 52% a year ago, data showed.

The country spurred its storage efforts after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, while EU storage is 49% full on average, data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed. In addition to Yamal-Europe, Russia also pipes gas to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline under the Baltic Sea, via Ukraine and via TurkStream, which carries gas to Turkey.

Gazprom said gas volumes for Europe via Ukraine on Tuesday stood at 40.9 million cubic metres (mcm) per day versus 40.1 mcm on Monday.

Nominations for flows into Slovakia from Ukraine via the Velke Kapusany border point stood at 36.9 mcm per day, unchanged from Monday, data from Ukraine's system operator showed.

Flows to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline under the Baltic Sea fell to 65,538,490 kilowatt hours per hour (kWh/h) on Tuesday morning from around 67,600,000 kWh/h over the previous 24 hours, in line with customer requests.

(Reporting by Swati Verma in Bengaluru, Marek Strzelecki and Christoph Steiz; editing by Louise Heavens and Jason Neely)