Austrian energy company OMV has secured 40 TWh of additional gas pipeline capacity for the coming gas year (1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023), which will be enough to cover about half of the group’s annual demand and all of its delivery obligations in Austria, in the context of continued strained relations with Russia.
The announcement comes after the company said it was receiving approximatively 70% less natural gas than it ordered, due to the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, carrying Russian gas to Germany, beginning its annual maintenance, and reducing gas flows to Europe.
The new transfer points are the nodes Oberkappel in Upper Austria for a pipeline connected to Germany and Arnoldstein in Carinthia for a pipeline connected to Italy. These new transfer points will enable OMV to transport to Austria imported LNG, as well as gas it produces in Norway.
OMV has already managed to increase its own natural gas storage to nearly 80% of its capacity, as is required by a EU directive of June 2022 (member states are required to fill up existing gas storage facilities on their respective territory to at least 80% of their capacity by 1 November 2022).