As of: February 12, 2024, 5:17 p.m
By: Lars-Eric Nievelstein
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Hardly any other country is as dependent on Russian gas as Austria.
That should change now.
The Energy Minister wants to fix the “market failure”.
Vienna – 98 percent.
This is how high the share of Russian gas in Austria's gas imports should be.
Here in Germany it was around 55 percent in March 2022, just shortly after the Russian attack on Ukraine.
That was enough for an extensive dependency debate.
Now Austria is topping this number, which Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) has called into action.
She wants to end the addiction.
Share of Russian gas in Austria's gas imports |
98 percent (December 2023) |
|---|---|
Term of the gas contracts between Gazprom and OMV |
Until 2040 |
Share of non-Russian gas in heating season 23/34 at Wien Energie |
30 percent |
98 percent gas imports from Russia – Minister wants to combat dependency
The reason for Gewessler's rush was the report that Austria had purchased 98 percent of its gas imports from Russia in December.
According to the minister, this was a high since the Russian attack in 2022.
“We are currently seeing a clear market failure here,” the German Press Agency (
dpa
) quoted the minister as saying.
“There is enough non-Russian natural gas – but the energy companies don’t buy it.” A change in the law should help.
The problem is that the minister needs a two-thirds majority in parliament.
Alexey Miller, then Chairman of Gazprom Management Committee, and Vladimir Putin: Hardly any other country is as dependent on Russian gas as Austria.
That should change now.
© IMAGO / SNA Mikhail Klimentyev
There is a bigger problem with the Austrian gas supply.
The partially state-owned energy company OMV signed a contract in 2018 that stipulated natural gas deliveries between Russia and Austria until 2040.
In addition to Alexey Miller, then Chairman of Gazprom Management Committee, and the former CEO of OMV, Rainer Seele, the two politicians Sebastian Kurz and Vladimir Putin were present at the signing of the contract.
OMV launches investigation – “Possible misconduct” by the CEO
Just a few months later, Rainer Seele signed a contract that further increased the gas delivery volume.
“Europe's gas demand will increase primarily due to the gradual replacement of coal by gas-fired power plants and the simultaneous decline in production in Europe,” said Seele, justifying this step.
What's particularly piquant about the matter is that Seele apparently acted in both gas supply contracts in a way that deviated from the company's statements to a certain extent.
This was enough for the OMV Supervisory Board to initiate a special audit in connection with “possible misconduct”.
Other points where there were possible breaches of duty included the conclusion of a side agreement with an OMV executive and the conclusion of a sports sponsorship agreement with the Zenit St. Petersburg football club.
The investigative committee found “process deviations in all three sub-investigations”.
The consequence: Seele was dismissed by the supervisory board.
Austria needs a new security strategy
The OMV company is currently looking for legal options to get out of these contracts.
A feature of the contract is the fixed purchase obligation.
As a result, OMV would have to pay even if it did not purchase Russian gas.
Gewessler also advocates for a new security strategy.
An independent energy supply should be given greater importance.
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The goal is – as decided by the EU – to work without Russian gas within the next few years.
Overall, the Alpine republic is heading in the right direction.
Since 2021, when Austria purchased 100.3 terawatt hours of gas consumption from Russia, the amount has now fallen to 75.6 terawatt hours in 2023. “OMV is actively pushing forward the diversification of its gas supply sources, which include gas from its own production and purchases from Norway as well includes additional LNG volumes,” explained Alfred Stern, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of OMV, in a company announcement.
“We therefore continue to make a significant contribution to the gas supply in Austria.”
Energy companies are looking for alternatives to Russia – and find them in Norway
So OMV is not the only energy company looking for new gas partners.
Energie AG from Upper Austria announced in a group report that it had “no direct contracts with Russian partners”.
It sources its gas either from the stock exchange or from “bilateral partners in Switzerland and France”.
Wien Energie, which claims to be Austria's largest energy supplier, does indeed purchase gas from Russia, but is also looking for alternatives.
“Wien Energie is making massive efforts to further reduce its dependence on Russian natural gas,” said Peter Hanke, City Councilor for Economic Affairs and Wiener Stadtwerke.
“I very much welcome the fact that we have managed to get 30 percent of the required quantities from non-Russian sources for this heating season.” This makes district heating in Vienna more independent.
Specifically, this is about 2.5 terawatt hours, most of which Wien Energie purchased from Norway.
With material from dpa