Russia’s state-owned gas firm Gazprom will certainly finish its gas shipments to Austria this weekend break, the nation’s biggest power distributor, OMV stated on Friday.
OMV revealed that Gazprom will certainly quit providing it with gas on Saturday.
The Austrian power firm stated it had actually anticipated this advancement which the nation will certainly remain to obtain gas with import from Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer stated the nation has a safe and secure supply of different gas which “no one will freeze.”
“The supply is secure,” Nehammer stated in a look at the chancellery to attend to the circumstance.
“Our gas storage facilities are full and we have sufficient capacity to obtain gas from other regions,” he included.
Most of Austria’s gas supply is Russian
Austria’s power connection with Russia go back to the Cold War, as it was among the very first Western European nations to import gas from the Soviet Union in 1968.
The end of Russian gas distribution to Austria adheres to a settlement judgment by the International Chamber of Commerce, that granted OMV some EUR230 million ($ 242 million) in a legal conflict with Gazprom.
OMV after that stated it would certainly quit paying Gazprom till it got a quantity of gas matching to the EUR230 million that the Russian firm owed them.
Austria obtains a lot of its gas from Russia, as high as 98% in December 2023, according to Energy Minister Lenore Gewessler.
No modification to Ukraine plan
Since the battle in Ukraine started in 2022, just 3 European nations–Austria, Slovakia and Hungary– remained to import Russian gas by means of a pipe that takes a trip with Ukraine, in spite of the Russian intrusion.
But Ukraine revealed it will certainly not proceed gas transportation on the pipe after January 1, 2025, which would certainly require those nations to locate various other distributors.
Nehammer stated in a declaration on Friday that in spite of the stop in gas shipments, his nation would certainly not alter its Ukraine plan.
“We will not be blackmailed and will not be brought to our knees,” he stated.
Nehammer charged Gazprom of not satisfying its shipment commitments on a number of events, with the objective of applying stress on Austria for its assistance of EU permissions versusRussia
jcg/ab (dpa, Reuters, AP)
