OREANDA-NEWS. Gas flows through one of the two 27.5bn m³/yr Nord Stream pipelines were stopped at the weekend of 7-8 November after a piece of munitions was found near the line.

The object was found near line 2 in the Baltic Sea, about 120km from Gotland in the Swedish exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on 6 November.

Discussions are underway with the Swedish authorities to remove the object, which was found during an annual inspection of the pipeline. The operator was unable to give an estimate for when flows will restart through line 2.

There was no immediate danger to the pipeline, but flows from line 2 have been shifted into line 1 to meet contractual requirements, the operator said today.

Deliveries remained at more than half of Nord Stream's nameplate capacity of 55bn m³/yr, or around 150mn m³/d, through its twin pipelines.

Nord Stream flows into Nel and Opal — its onshore continuations — slipped to 99.4mn m³/d on 7-8 November from 107.8mn m³/d earlier in the month. Deliveries had been as high as 113.4mn m³/d on 4-6 November.

Flows into Opal at Greifswald slipped slightly to 54.5mn m³/d on 7-8 November from 54.8mn m³/d on working days last week, while deliveries into Nel dropped to 44.9mn m³/d from 55.4mn m³/d.

Transport capacity could be interrupted, Gascade, which operates Nel and Opal, said. But the firm was not able to comment on the extent to which the halt of one leg of Nord Stream would restrict deliveries or how long any constraints would last.

Gazprom could meet its contractual commitments with sources other than Nord Stream. The firm holds storage capacity at Rehden in Germany and Bergermeer in the Netherlands and could withdraw from these sites to meet nominations.

There is also spare pipeline capacity to increase exports to the Ukraine-Slovakia border to offset lower Nord Stream flows. But deliveries at the Ukraine-Slovakia border were lower on 7-8 November than earlier this month and remained slow this morning.