Russia cuts off gas supply in Austria

Russia's state-owned natural gas company Gazprom will end its natural gas deliveries to Austria this weekend, the country’s largest energy supplier, OMV said on Friday.

OMV announced that Gazprom will stop supplying it with gas on Saturday.

The Austrian energy company said it had expected this development and that the country will continue to get gas through import from Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said the country has a secure supply of alternative fuel and that “no one will freeze.”

“The supply is secure,” Nehammer said in an appearance at the chancellery to address the situation.

“Our gas storage facilities are full and we have sufficient capacity to obtain gas from other regions,” he added.

Austria’s energy relationship with Russia dates back to the Cold War, as it was one of the first Western European countries to import gas from the Soviet Union in 1968.

The end of Russian gas deliveries to Austria follows an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce, that awarded OMV some €230 million ($242 million) in a contractual dispute with Gazprom.

OMV then said it would stop paying Gazprom until it received an amount of gas equivalent to the €230 million that the Russian company owed them.

Austria gets most of its natural gas from Russia, as much as 98% in December 2023, according to Energy Minister Lenore Gewessler._Agencies