Vienna/Moscow – The Russian state company Gazprom will stop supplying natural gas to Austria from 06:00 CET on Saturday. Gazprom announced this today to the Austrian company OMV, which receives the gas. Gazprom’s action is a response to OMV’s move to suspend payments to Gazprom in order to recover the amount awarded to it in arbitration.
OMV said on the platform of the Central European gas hub that Gazprom informed it that it will reduce supplies to zero from 06:00 CET on Saturday. According to Reuters, this could mean the end of the last supplies of Russian gas to the European Union.
According to Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Austria’s gas reservoirs are 93 percent full, and the country is thus well prepared to stop supplies from Russia.
“So something happened that we had been expecting for a long time, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, and we were preparing for this situation,” Nehammer said today at a press conference. He emphasized that no household in the country will freeze. “No one will blackmail us. Not even the Russian president,” the chancellor said. “We will not let Putin’s government, or Putin himself, bring us to our knees,” APA quoted him as saying.
On Thursday, OMV drew attention to the fact that there is a threat of stopping Russian gas supplies through Ukraine even before the end of the year precisely because of the arbitration proceedings against Gazprom. According to its statement, the company has been preparing for a possible stoppage of supplies from Russia for a long time. It has secured transport capacity from Germany and Italy, as well as long-term contracts with other gas suppliers. It can also deliver liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Netherlands.
The OMV court awarded compensation of 230 million euros (CZK 5.8 billion). The Austrian company demanded compensation for irregular gas supplies and for the complete stoppage of supplies to Germany in August 2022. In addition, OMV has several other disputes with the Russian state company.
“From tomorrow (from Saturday – ČTK’s note) there will be only two countries left in the EU that consume Russian gas by pipeline to a significant extent, namely Slovakia and Hungary. Some EU countries, however, consume Russian liquefied gas delivered by sea,” said ČTK Trinity Bank chief economist Lukáš Kovanda.
These are mainly France, Belgium and Spain. “If we add oil withdrawals, France is the largest importer of Russian fossil energy in the EU,” added Kovanda. In second place behind France is Austria, which, according to him, imported Russian fossil energy for 5.6 billion crowns. So far, 7,400 megawatt-hours per hour have flowed into Austria from Russia via Ukraine, which corresponds to approximately five terawatt-hours per month.
The price of natural gas for the European market for delivery in December showed a decrease of approximately one percent this evening and was slightly below 46 euros (1162 CZK) per megawatt hour (MWh). Before that, it climbed up to 47.35 euros. Two years ago, a megawatt hour was sold for more than 90 euros.
Austria is one of the few European countries still dependent on Russian gas, while most of Europe has already cut imports following the start of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. A contract to transit Russian gas to Ukraine is expected to expire at the end of the year. EU through Ukraine, because Ukraine is not interested in its extension.
Russia Austria EU trade gas diplomacy Gazprom OMV company FLESH
Source: www.ceskenoviny.cz
