Since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute, natural gas storage facilities in Austria have been massively expanded, with storage capacity almost doubling to 95.5 terawatt hours (TWh) since 2007. That roughly corresponds to Austria’s annual consumption and is “almost unique in Europe,” emphasizes E-Control board member Alfons Haber. The stored gas is owned by suppliers to Austrian end customers, but also by international gas traders and industrial companies.
Reserve should be enough for two winter months
“Basically, the gas always belongs to whoever bought it and stored it,” explained Haber. “Most of the stored gas is not assigned to specific national markets. The traders and companies that own the stored gas sell it partly based on supply contracts that have already been concluded, but also partly based on price and demand.” At the end of 2021 there were 74 storage customers who owned the gas in the storage facilities and in the past there was no doubt that there was enough gas available for end customers in Austria.
However, this has now been called into question by the Ukraine war: On the one hand, the EU states are threatening to boycott Russian gas as part of economic sanctions, on the other hand, the Russian Gazprom group has significantly reduced its gas supplies to the West.
The Austrian government therefore announced in mid-March that it would create a strategic gas reserve owned by the Austrian state. “These 20 TWh, which are to be procured by tender, are only available to Austrian consumers in the event of an emergency,” explained the energy regulator. “This amount corresponds to the average gas consumption in Austria over two winter months.”
Storage is more than half full
Overall, the storage facilities in Austria are already more than 50 percent full. “That puts us very far ahead in a European comparison,” emphasized Haber. “Other countries, such as Germany, have a higher filling level, but the share of annual consumption is only 16 percent.” The situation is similar in other countries around Austria, for example the gas currently stored in Italy corresponds to only 18 percent of annual consumption there. This is the same value as for all of Europe. “18 percent of European consumption is stored.” Austria’s southern neighbor Slovenia does not have its own gas storage facility but stores gas in Austria, but that is only a small part of Austria’s storage capacity, “a small single-digit percentage,” says Haber.
Operated by OMV and RAG
The Austrian gas storage facilities are technically operated by OMV Austria Exploration & Production and RAG Austria. These are depleted gas fields that have been converted. They are in the East market area, “these are seven federal states that have an interconnected gas network,” Haber explained, namely a transmission and distribution network. Tyrol and Vorarlberg are supplied with natural gas via Germany.
The storage capacities are marketed by five storage companies: OMV Gas Storage GmbH (OGS), RAG Energy Storage GmbH (RES), Uniper Energy Storage Austria, Astora GmbH and GSA. OMV alone accounts for around 26 percent (25.3 TWh) of the storage volume in Austria and 40 percent of the storage connected to the East market area.
RAG uses its capacity primarily for Austria, while Uniper uses the storage facilities for Austria and Germany.
Haidach connected to the Austrian gas grid
The Gazprom subsidiaries Astora and GSA marketed the gas storage facility in Haidach, which is only connected to the German gas network. The part of Haidach marketed by GSA has hardly been used since the summer of 2021, said Carola Millgramm, head of E-Control’s gas department. GSA did not fill the storage itself, but did not allow others to store gas there either. “There was a specific request that we are aware of that was answered in the negative,” said Haber. “With the use-it-or-lose-it principle, the legislature has now created a way to prevent capacities from simply being hoarded.” This reservoir has been refilled since August 1st, and RAG is now responsible for marketing. The storage tank is to be filled with the state’s strategic reserve, which corresponds to 22 to 23 percent of Austria’s annual consumption.
The Haidach storage facility holds a good 32 TWh of gas, of which Astora accounts for over 11 TWh and GSA for around 21 TWh. 14 TWh of the GSA storage are now being marketed by RAG.
One of the consequences of the most recent amendment to the gas industry law is that Haidach – like all storage facilities located on Austrian territory – has to be connected to the Austrian gas network, said Haber. In addition, the option of a market maker to keep gas quantities available to ensure security of supply was created with the GWG amendment. The Ministry of Energy decides on the quantities to be kept available and the use of these quantities as balancing energy, the market makers are selected via a tender and the costs are covered by federal funds. “This ensures that storage quantities are kept available in the storage facility and are available as balancing energy, for example in the months of January and February with the highest consumption,” explained Haber.
Also new is that suppliers of protected customers, i.e. households and basic social services, now have to prove to E-Control once a year that they have stored enough gas for 30 winter days. Previously, gas purchase contracts were sufficient for this proof.
Source: Nachrichten
