OSCOW, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Requests for Russian natural gas flows through the Yamal-Europe pipeline into Germany at the Mallnow metering point for Dec. 17 were down 15% from the previous day"s level, data on operator Gascade"s website showed, after they initially declined to zero. read more Nominations for Dec. 17 were set at 11,550,400 kilowatt hours (kWh) per hour, down from 13,521,200 kWh per hour for the previous day. Hourly physical flows early on Friday were also down by almost 15% to 10,473,917 kWh from more than 12,000,000 kWh previously. Russian gas exporter Gazprom did not book transit capacity via the pipeline for December and has to book it on a daily basis via auctions. The pipeline is one of the major routes for Russian gas exports to Europe and traverses Belarus. Nominations for Friday"s volumes at the Velke Kapusany metering point on the Slovakia-Ukraine border, another major route to Europe, were for 951,944.3 megawatt hours (MWh) or 87.5 million cubic metres, similar to levels seen in December so far. The new Nord Stream 2 pipeline which runs from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea is not expected to start operating before the end of the first half of 2022. read more