Iran Energy News Oil, Gas, Petrochemical and Energy Field Specialized Channel
Related Articles
Austria appears to be still receiving some Russian gas two days after the country’s integrated energy company, OMV, declared it would stop paying Gazprom to offset a 230 million-euro ($242 million) arbitration award by the International Chamber of Commerce over a previous gas cut-off.
According to Reuters, gas flows from Slovakia–a transit route mostly for Russian gas flowing through Ukraine to Austria to Austria–clocked in at 27 million cubic meters (mcm) per day before Gazprom stopped supplies to OMV on Saturday. Supplies, however, fell only around 17% to around 22.6 mcm/day on Sunday. Data from Eustream showed that Austria received about a third of planned shipments for 22.3 million cubic meters for Monday.
Meanwhile, gas flows of gas from Slovakia to the Czech Republic have jumped by 74% since October despite Czech companies lacking any supply contracts with Gazprom. Last week, Slovakia’s national oil company, Slovenský plynárenský priemysel (SPP), signed a short-term pilot contract to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan as it prepares for a possible halt to Russian supplies via Ukraine, Reuters has reported.
Ukraine has signaled it has no intention to renew a five-year pipeline transit agreement to supply natural gas to EU countries when it expires on December 31, 2024, while EU energy chief Kadri Simson indicated that the EU executive has “no interest” in pushing to revive the agreement. The EU has warned member countries to prepare for a world without Russian gas, with Ukraine gas amounting to 5% of total EU gas imports. Aura Sabadus, a senior analyst at the ICIS market intelligence firm, told Politico that Austria, Hungary and Slovakia are likely to be the hardest hit when the imports are cut off.
Meanwhile, Turkey has said it is prepared to significantly increase natural gas exports to the European Union, desperate to further wean itself off Russian gas. However, this will not be easy or cheap: In order to do that, the most likely route is to re-export Azeri natural gas from Turkey. That, in turn, would require Turkey to take in more Russian gas to make up for the shortfall. Ankara is keen to play the role of savior and boost its leverage with respect to Brussels; but it wants some demand guarantees before it starts spending on the necessary infrastructure.
