Russia is starting to gradually increase gas supplies

European gas prices fell on Tuesday morning. The reason was signals that Russia is apparently starting to gradually increase supplies, as promised by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The European reference futures gas contract fell as much as 6.2 percent on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning, it was 3.1 percent lower at 76.65 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh). The equivalent British gas contract fell by 3.2 percent. Current data signal an increase in supplies through Ukraine. Gazprom approved a plan to fill its European storage facilities in November, and according to the Ukrainian gas network operator. Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised that Russia will start sending more gas to Europe from Monday, when he ordered Gazprom to fill European storage tanks after it has finished filling storage tanks in Russia. Supplies have not yet risen on Monday, but currently appear to be growing steadily. In addition, the Yamal pipeline, which runs from Russia via Poland to Germany, no longer operates in the reverse mode as most of last week and on Monday, but again flows gas westwards, ie from Poland to Germany. European gas prices have more than tripled this year. The main reason was weak supplies from Russia, which caused European gas reserves to be the lowest in more than ten years at the beginning of the current heating season. Moscow has repeatedly stated that it can supply more gas after the launch of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline. According to some European politicians, Russia is pushing this way for Germany and the European Union (EU) to approve the operation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. But now it seems that more gas could start flowing from Russia and that Putin will keep his promise. This is still only about one-eighth of the extra transit pipeline capacity offered the next day. No additional capacity was allocated for other transit points.