Austria prepared

Is the gas chaos coming? “Pulled by the hair”

Gas storage facilities in Austria are full.

(Bild: AFP/JOE KLAMAR)

There will be no gas shortages in the next two winters! This has now been assured by E-Control board member Alfons Haber. Even if Ukraine stops letting gas through from 2025, the Republic is prepared.

"Imports of Russian gas via Ukraine and Slovakia to Baumgarten can be completely replaced by imports via Germany and Italy," Haber told journalists in Vienna on Monday evening.

"This scenario of someone having to freeze to death in Europe does not exist," emphasized Carola Millgramm, Head of the Gas Department at E-Control. Such considerations are "far-fetched".

The gas market is liquid, the gas storage facilities are well filled and European security measures were put in place after the first gas crisis in 2009. In addition, there is the European Security of Supply Regulation with solidarity mechanisms for protected customers.

Gas consumption reduced by a fifth
The necessary transport capacity for importing non-Russian gas is now also available, said Haber. "As of October 1, the import capacity via Italy has increased to 95 terawatt hours per year. In Germany, the import capacity is 90 terawatt hours."

In comparison: Austria's gas consumption in 2021 was 96 TWh, in 2023 it was only 75.64 TWh. "That corresponds to a reduction in gas consumption of around 21.4 percent," says Haber. Consumption in Austria will also be around 75 TWh this year. Total consumption in Europe is 3600 TWh per year.

Where will new supplies come from?
Norwegian pipeline gas and US LNG in particular would come via Germany. In the Italian gas market, Algerian pipeline gas and LNG supplies are the main sources. For Austria, important LNG terminals are located in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, as well as in northern Italy. In Belgium and Italy, this is mainly gas from Qatar. According to E-Control, the share of US LNG in Belgium is around 20 percent and in Italy around 40 percent.

From 2027, there are also plans to strengthen the import route via Germany with the WAG loop expansion, which will increase the import capacity from Germany to 117 TWh per year, said Haber. Austria has also built up a strategic gas reserve of 20 TWh and spent almost four billion euros on this. The obligation to maintain this state reserve has been extended by the National Council until April 1, 2026 for the time being.

Anger over false reports
According to Haber, a total of around 92 TWh of gas is stored in Austrian gas storage facilities, which are 90 percent full. Recently, however, there have been "false reports" that only a small proportion of the gas in the storage facilities would be available for the Austrian market, the energy regulator was annoyed.

In fact, around 33 TWh of the 92 TWh in storage would be reserved for Austrian end customers, while a further 16 TWh would "very probably" remain on the Austrian gas market. Some of the storage capacities will be used by foreign - mostly German - storage customers. "They also have the option of trading the volumes on the virtual trading platform in Austria - i.e. also via the exchange - and making them available to Austrian gas customers. The key factor as to whether they do this is the price difference on the wholesale markets."

Is there a back door through Ukraine?
However, it is still unclear whether the expiry of the gas transit agreement between Ukraine and Russia will change anything at all. The Ukrainian pipeline operator could offer traders who buy Russian gas transport capacities via a booking platform, explained Millgramm. Whether anyone has secured capacity will probably only be known shortly before the end of the year.

Alfons Haber is annoyed by false reports.

(Bild: Anna Rauchenberger)

"We certainly don't know." The US sanctions against Russia's Gazprombank, through which payments between Gazprom Export and its trading partners in Europe and the EU are processed, will create further uncertainty for gas flows from December 20.

According to E-Control, the increase in the wholesale price in recent weeks will only have a "marginal" impact on household prices for the time being, as procurement has already taken place and the majority of household customers have fixed-price contracts.