Russian gas supply freeze: gas industry is prepared

The Russian state-owned company Gazprom stopped its deliveries to Austria on Saturday. The background to this is a ruling by an international arbitration court that the Austrian energy company OMV has been awarded damages of 230 million euros, which Gazprom is to pay. In view of the Russian delivery stop, Dr. Timm Kehler, CEO of Zukunft Gas, says:

“Once again, Russian leader Putin is demonstrating that he sees gas as a weapon and not as a commodity. However, the industry is now well prepared for these blackmail attempts. The European storage facilities are sufficiently filled at almost 92 percent and the necessary import capacities are available, not least with the LNG terminals on the German coast. The German terminals, in particular the Baltic Sea terminal in Mukran, can take on an important function for the supply of Austria and Eastern Europe even after the threatened end of the Ukraine transit at the end of the year. The European solidarity mechanisms are taking effect and will secure the supply of Austria. This is also shown by the reactions on the gas markets, where the Russian step had already been expected. At the end of the week, prices had risen, but only very moderately.”