The warning from Omv, the main Austrian operator in energy production
May 22, 2024
OmvThe main Austrian operator in the production of gas and oilwarns with an ‘urgent message’ to the market that supplies of Russian gas from Gazprom Export to Austria could be interrupted.
“A decision of a foreign court obtained from a large European energy company”, explains Omv in the message, if it were applied in Austria against the subsidiary OMV Gas Marketing & Trading (Ogmt), it would require the Austrian company to “make the payments required by its gas supply contract with Gazprom Export” to the European energy company instead of Gazprom Export. Omv “does not currently know if and when” the measure could be applied. If it were implemented, the Austrian operator “considers it probable that Gazprom Export will interrupt the supply of Gas pursuant to the supply contract with Ogmt, with consequent repercussions on the Austrian gas market. This assessment is based on the behavior of Gazprom Export in similar situations.”
In a similar scenario, the subsidiary Ogmt “would still be able to supply its contractual customers with gas from alternative non-Russian sources, thanks to the extensive diversification efforts made in recent years”. Omv explains that it sources “natural gas from its own production plants in Norway and Austria, as well as from international natural gas producers. It also has long-term LNG supply contracts, which is imported into Europe via OMV’s LNG regasification capabilities at the GATE terminal in Rotterdam.” It also participates “as a potential buyer in the auctions of the EU common gas purchasing platform (‘EU Energy Platform’). Finally Omv explains that it has “access to all major markets exchange and gas capacity of thecentral Europe And North Western and has the relevant transport capacities”.
