Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom will shut one of its major pipelines to Europe on Tuesday for maintenance lasting 30 hours, Gazprom and Poland said on Monday, according to Reuters.

Gazprom said it would shut the Yamal-Europe pipeline, running from Russia to Germany via Poland, Ukraine and Belarus, at the requests of EuroPolGaz and WinGas, Gazprom`s Polish and German ventures, to carry out maintenance in the two countries.

"Gas transportation along the Yamal-Europe pipeline will be halted from 1600 (1200 GMT) Sept. 2 to 2200 (1800 GMT) Sept. 3," Gazprom said in a statement.

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It added that the pipeline will deliver 50 million cubic metres of gas per day, or half of its designed capacity, during the following 24 hours, until 2200 on Sept. 4.

After that, deliveries will be fully restored, Gazprom said in the statement.

It added that European consumers would be compensated for the shortage by increased deliveries via alternative routes.

Gazprom is the world`s largest gas producer and supplies Europe with a quarter of its gas needs.

Poland`s economy ministry confirmed the halt and said it was arranged months ago.

"The maintenance was set up in January," Maciej Wozniak, head of the oil and gas department at the economy ministry, told reporters.

The pipeline, which runs from the Yamal peninsula in Russia`s Arctic north to Frankfurt on Oder on the Polish-German border, carries Russian gas for over 4,000 km (2,485 miles).

Poland used 13.6 billion cubic metres of gas in 2007, of which 6.2 billion was imported from Russia.

Reuters