Austria has found alternative ways to supply gas and is no longer dependent on the import of this energy source from Russia, the state agency E-Control announced today, according to the German press agency dpa. Its manager, Alfons Haber, also pointed out that the gas storages are more than 90% full.
Unlike most other EU countries, Austria still relied on Russian gas, the share of which in the total supply this year is 80%. “We have now secured other potential supply routes. Even in the case of Russian interruption of gas supplies, homes will not be cold either this year or next winter,” he assured Alfons Haber. He mentioned the possibility of supplying liquefied natural gas through Germany and Italy.
Uncertainty regarding the supply of Russian gas to Austria has recently increased again, as an arbitration court awarded 230 million euros in compensation to the partially state-owned Austrian energy company OMV in a dispute with Russia’s Gazprom. OMV intends to settle this amount by offsetting future gas deliveries from Russia.
Austria’s role in the energy market is also important because of the VTP trading point. It is a large Baumgarten gas hub in the east of the country, through which Slovenia also receives gas. According to the Energy Agency, Austria received 68.3 percent of all imported gas last year.
The contract on the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine expires at the end of the year. Ukraine has already announced several times that it does not intend to extend it, but will help potential European interested parties in the acquisition of Russian gas at the Ukrainian-Russian border and in transit to Europe. As Haber estimated today, the termination of the contract will temporarily make gas more expensive by about a tenth. However, the price impact is not comparable to that of 2022, when gas prices rose sharply after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Source: svet24.si
