Austria’s energy group OMV and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) signed a letter of intent yesterday, Thursday, which includes a new partnership for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Specifically, it was agreed that OMV would buy one shipload or one terawatt hour of natural gas for the 2023/24 winter season. This secures the heat supply for 65,000 households.
This relatively small amount (96 TWh of natural gas was consumed in Austria in 2021) is the result of the trip by Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (VP), Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) and Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (VP) to Abu Dhabi’s Regent Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al- Nahyan.
Specifically, the contract is signed by the partially state-owned OMV. OMV CEO Alfred Stern spoke of an intensification of the partnership and another building block to develop diversified gas sources. Adnoc is actually a well-known partner with whom the OMV subsidiary Borealis runs a basic chemicals production (Borouge). Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala, holds a 24.9 percent stake in OMV itself.
More than 100 percent
On the way to Abu Dhabi, Stern drew attention with the statement that OMV’s natural gas storage facilities were already “over 100 percent full”. “It works because there are cavities underground. And if you push gas in there, it’s possible that you can get a little more gas in than the nominal capacity.”
According to Stern, OMV accounts for about 25 percent of the domestic gas storage capacity, “and Austria has a total storage capacity to last about a year”. OMV is able to fully meet its customer obligations with non-Russian gas. “We have already booked 40 terawatt hours of pipeline capacity for this gas year,” both from Germany and Italy, explained the OMV boss.
OMV has a market share of around 45 percent in Austria. “Gazprom is currently delivering, and this gas continues to flow to Austria. That is also partly the reason why prices have recently been significantly reduced.”
It was also announced yesterday that OMV is canceling the sale of a New Zealand oil field. Changes in the Management Board were also resolved at the Supervisory Board meeting. Martijn van Koten takes over the department from Elena Skvortsova, who is leaving at the end of the month. Today OMV presents its figures for three business quarters.
Energy Outlook
The drop in exports of Russian oil and gas to Europe will change the global energy industry for decades, writes the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its annual World Energy Outlook on 524 pages.
- The share of Russian natural gas on the world market in 2030 will only amount to 13 percent. Last year it was 20 percent. To date, Russia has been by far the world’s largest exporter of fossil fuels.
- In 2025 fossil fuel emissions will peak. According to the IEA, this is a crucial moment in the history of energy: since the industrial revolution, global consumption of fossil fuels has increased in parallel with economic growth. Now, based on the current policy, the reversal of this increase should succeed.
- The use of coal will decrease in the next few years, and the demand for natural gas will remain on a plateau until 2030. Rising demand for electric vehicles will flatten oil demand in the mid-2030s before falling in 2050.
- The share of fossil fuels will be 60 percent in 2050, compared to 80 percent currently. Only in a more ambitious scenario could it be possible to slow down the global temperature increase in accordance with the climate targets.
Source: Nachrichten
