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Russian natural gas flows to Europe via Ukraine have remained stable this week despite the fact that Gazprom cut off supply to Austria’s OMV over the weekend.
Gazprom is sending 42.4 million cubic meters of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Thursday, Reuters quoted the Russian gas giant as saying.
This volume has not changed since early last week when Austrian energy company OMV said it would seek enforcement of the award it won against Gazprom in an arbitration dispute over Russian gas supply.
Nominations from companies in Austria and Slovakia have not changed this week, but they were still 12% below last week’s levels, which was prior to Russian gas giant Gazprom halting supply to OMV.
It is not clear yet which customers in Austria are now buying the gas previously supplied to OMV.
The EU gas market has been on edge since OMV said last week it was awarded $242 million (230 million euros), plus interest and costs, in an arbitration case against Gazprom’s irregular German gas supplies and take “the necessary next steps to enforce the arbitral award with immediate effect.”
In light of the arbitration award, OMV warned that “It is expected that there may be a deterioration of the contractual relationship under the Austrian supply contract of OGMT with Gazprom Export, including a potential halt of gas supply.”
Indeed, Gazprom halted supply to OMV as of Saturday.
The European gas market is also bracing itself for the end of the gas transit deal for Russian flows via Ukraine. The deal expires on December 31, 2024, and Ukraine has said that it would not pursue talks about renewing the agreement with Russia.
Last week, Slovakia’s state energy company, SPP, signed a short-term pilot contract with SOCAR to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan as it prepares for a possible halt to Russian supplies via Ukraine.
