Natural gas flows from Russia to Germany via the Yamal pipeline came to a halt on Wednesday, data from the German network operator Gascade showed, dashing expectations it was about to pump gas west for the first time since December.  

Gas through the Yamal pipeline, which typically flows west into Germany, has been in reverse mode, flowing east to Poland, since Dec. 21.

It was expected to revert to its normal mode of exporting west after Gazprom booked transit capacity for eight hours, starting from 2100 GMT on Tuesday.

For the Yamal-Europe pipeline via Poland, it booked only 19.26 MMcm/d of the 89.1 MMcm/d of monthly capacity offered for January.

High prices have discouraged purchases of spot volumes from Russia and buyers have resorted to using stored gas in Europe, meaning storage levels have fallen below their five-year average.

The Yamal pipeline usually makes up about a sixth of Russia's annual gas exports to Europe and Turkey.