MHMarkets:Russian gas resumes gas shipments into Germany

On Wednesday, the European Union announced plans to ration gas by next spring amid concerns that Russia could slash gas flows into the continent. The “Save Gas for a Safe Winter” program sets a target for 27 member states to reduce gas demand by 15% between August and March next year. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that a complete shutdown of Russian gas was a “possible scenario”.

Russian state energy giant Gazprom has resumed gas shipments into Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, according to the operator's website. The Nord Stream 1 has been closed for 10 days for scheduled maintenance and there are fears that deliveries will not resume in Russia once theworkiscomplete.

Thursday's readings showed 21,388,236 kWh/h of natural gas being piped between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. ET, well below Nord Stream 1's capacity. The head of Germany's cyber watchdog, Klaus Mueller, tweeted on Wednesday that Gazprom's scheduled delivery on Thursday was only about 30 percent of the pipeline's capacity. Before the pipeline shutdown, Gazprom delivered only 40% of capacity after a dispute over critical gas turbine repairs.

Financial data and events to focus on today:

20:15   ECB announces interest rate decision

20:30   Initial jobless claims for the week ending July 16

20:30   US July Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index

20:45   ECB President Lagarde holds a press conference

22:00   Monthly rate of leading indicators of the U.S. Conference Board in June

22:30   U.S. to July 15 week EIA natural gas inventories