Russia Cuts Gas Supplies To Austria

Russian gas giant Gazprom continued to deliver steady volumes of gas to Europe via Ukraine over the weekend, but supplies to Austrian energy company OMV were halted just hours after Vienna announced that Russia had notified it of an impending cut, Vladimir Soldatkin and Guy Faulconbridge reported for Reuters.

Austria's energy regulator, E-Control, confirmed that Gazprom's deliveries to OMV have ceased. I Photo: Gazprom

Before the Ukraine war, Russia was Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas, but it has since lost almost all its European customers as the EU reduced its dependency.

Additionally, the Nord Stream gas pipeline to Germany was destroyed in 2022. Currently, one of the last remaining Russian gas routes to Europe—the Soviet-era Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline via Ukraine—is set to shut down at the end of the year.

This is due to Kyiv’s decision not to extend a five-year transit agreement that transports northern Siberian gas to Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Austria.

Austria announced recently that Moscow had informed it of the gas supply cutoff following an arbitration award to OMV, Austria's largest energy supplier. The award related to unfulfilled Gazprom deliveries to OMV’s German subsidiary.

Austria's energy regulator, E-Control, confirmed that Gazprom's deliveries to OMV have ceased. Despite this, prices and supplies to Austrian customers remained stable.

OMV plans to recover the €230 million in damages awarded during arbitration by offsetting the claim against invoices for gas deliveries to Austria—essentially withholding payment for some of the gas supplied via Ukraine, Thomas Escritt and Jason Hovet also reported for Reuters.