Austria will no longer receive gas from Russia in the future

Russia will stop its gas deliveries to Austria from Saturday, according to the Austrian energy company OMV. The partially state-owned OMV announced on Friday evening that OMV had received relevant information from Gazprom Export.

The stop of deliveries is in response to an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce, which awarded OMV 230 million euros in the dispute with Gazprom. Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer wants to appear in front of the press in the evening to comment on the development.

OMV had announced that it would consider the next gas deliveries to be paid until the amount was raised. Austria was one of the few countries in the EU that will continue to receive gas from Russia in 2024. The average proportion was 80 percent.

OMV and the board of the regulatory authority E-Control, Alfons Haber, have recently assured several times that such a step would not lead to a gas shortage in the country. Compared to the start of the Ukraine war in February 2022 and the subsequent energy crisis caused by the reduction in Russian gas deliveries, the situation is now significantly better due to lower gas consumption and more sources of supply. In addition, all memories are around 90 percent full. The gas from the storage facilities alone lasts Austria for around a year.

OMV has been preparing for this scenario for three years. The alternative gas should come from Norway, from our own production or in the form of liquefied natural gas by ship via Germany or Italy. And the gas storage facilities would cover domestic demand for several months with 95 terawatt hours.

Even without the current development, the cooperation between Austria and Russia, which has existed since 1968, would probably have come to an end. At the end of the year, the transit contract for the supply of Russian natural gas via the pipeline through Ukraine and Slovakia will expire – and it is unlikely to be renewed.