“The line is in a war zone”
Austria continues to buy gas from Russia diligently
November 20, 2023, 7:40 a.m
Austria’s supply contract with Russia runs until 2040. Vienna apparently sees no need for an early withdrawal from supplies from the country that is still attacking Ukraine. The fear of rising prices plays a major role.
In the second year of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Austria still sources a large part of its gas from Russia. According to data from the Austrian energy regulator E-Control, the Russian share of imported natural gas is on average 60 percent this year. In September it was even 80 percent – about the same as at the start of the war.
The former E-Control boss Walter Boltz and the ex-head of the energy company OMV, Gerhard Roiss, recently warned about the lack of preparation for a possible failure of deliveries from Russia. “That then results in high prices,” said Boltz. Although Austria has stored sufficient reserves for such an emergency, gas would still become more expensive because pipeline capacities on the alternative route from Germany to Austria are limited, said Boltz, who was hired with Roiss as an advisor to the Energy Ministry in Vienna.
The experts criticized the fact that the pipeline operator Gas Connect Austria (GCA) is not actively promoting the expansion of a pipeline for gas from Germany. “At the moment the quantities are still coming from Russia,” argued GCA boss Stefan Wagenhofer in a radio interview. This gas flows through Ukraine to Austria. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanischyna has assured that this will remain the case, even if Kiev wants to let the gas transit contract with the Russian Gazprom group expire.
From E-Control’s perspective, this does not change the risk that the pipeline could be damaged as a result of the conflict. “The line is still in a war zone,” said the head of the gas department at E-Control, Carola Millgramm. She emphasized that the GCA is obliged to implement the pipeline expansion that has already been approved. Millgramm said she expects a secure supply in the winter if gas imports remain stable. In contrast to Boltz, she considers the transport capacities on alternative routes from Italy or Germany to be sufficient.
Austria has not yet given up on Russian gas because the current supply contract is still in force until 2040. The partially state-owned Austrian company did not want to answer whether OMV, as a contractual partner of Gazprom, ever tried to negotiate an exit. However, OMV has secured alternative quantities of gas in the event of a delivery stop. Most regional energy suppliers, on the other hand, are still relying too heavily on Russia, said Boltz: “I have the impression that the companies are burying their heads in the sand and hoping that things won’t get that bad.”