The former boss of OMV, Gerhard Roiss, is convinced that from the end of 2024 Russian gas will no longer flow through Ukrainian pipelines to Austria. The reason is that Ukraine does not renew the relevant transit contract.
On Thursday, Roiss referred in the Ö1 “Morgenjournal” to the Ukrainian deputy energy minister, who recently informed him that Ukraine would let its contract with Russia expire at the end of 2024. From that moment on, no more pipelines will be made available for gas transit.
State action urgently needed
Austria currently gets almost 80 percent of its gas from Russia and urgently needs to prepare for the end of these supplies, the former OMV boss said. Despite other options, they have become dependent on Russian gas in recent years. Government action is necessary to become independent.
Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) had Roiss and former E-Control boss Walter Boltz develop a concept for the exit from Russian gas and presented it at the end of April. The minister wants to make energy suppliers more responsible for the storage of non-Russian gas and to transfer parts of OMV’s gas activities to the state holding company ÖBAG. In addition, Austria must secure gas volumes from OMV in Norway and Romania, including transport capacity.
However, Roiss admits, “Now it’s important to implement these things or implement alternatives to them.” You have to let go of the “hope principle” and move on to concrete crisis management. The fact that the gas price, which is currently around the same level as before the outbreak of war in Ukraine, remains low is only “a temporary interim high” that can be attributed to the fact that stocks are still full. As soon as there is no more Russian gas, prices will rise again.
The EU commission also recently criticized Austria for not having a “clearly defined short-term plan” for full decoupling of Russian gas imports. Although Austria has been able to reduce its dependence, it is still well above the EU average.
At the end of 2019, Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom signed a five-year contract with Ukraine for the transit of Russian natural gas. It ends on December 31, 2024.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
