Gazprom supplies 50% less gas to Austria

Austria will receive less gas for the fourth day in a row, the Russian energy company announced on Sunday, but demand is currently low and supply is secure.

Austrian oil and gas company OMV said that purchases are currently being made on the spot market to secure supplies for customers and storage. Trading on the spot, the short-term placement of orders, is done at the prevailing daily price and is the counterpart to the futures market.

“Since the invasion of Ukraine, it is clear that Russia is no longer a reliable partner,” said Climate Protection and Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler in a written statement on Saturday (June 18). In Austria, the early warning stage for the gas emergency plan was declared a few weeks ago, she said.

Chancellor Karl Nehammer called a crisis summit on Sunday evening.

The climate protection ministry, the responsible authority E-Control and the domestic gas infrastructure operator AGGM are “in daily exchange with all market players as well as international partners to monitor daily supply volumes, gas volumes available on the market and the price development.”

The ministry said the next step in the gas emergency plan would be the alert level. This would include calls to the industry to save gas and replace it with other energy sources.

“The decisive criterion is progress in building storage. We want to go into the winter with storage facilities that are 80% full. Then we will be well equipped. If this goal is at risk, we will take action,” Gewessler said.

Currently, the gas stores are 41.89% full.

Reduced gas supplies from Russia have also been reported in Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, France and Slovakia. Gazprom justifies the reduction in supply volumes with the economic sanctions imposed on Russia.

According to the Russian news agency RIA, gas deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline could soon be suspended completely.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck believes this is not a technical problem but a political decision. He said that the past few days have shown that it is necessary to secure energy independence from Russia.