Russian state-held energy company Gazprom has signed an amendment to a gas supply agreement with the Austrian oil and gas company OMV. It will increase gas deliveries to Austria by an additional 1 bcm/year beyond the contractual amount for the entire period of the existing contract, which lasts until 2040.
In June 2018, the two companies agreed on the extension of the existing gas supplies contract from 2028 until 2040, forecasting that Austria's natural gas import requirements will be growing significantly in the future.
Gazprom's gas supplies to Austria have been soaring in 2017 and reached an absolute record of 9.1 bcm, a 50% rise compared with 2016 (6.1 bcm) and +33.7% from 2005, when the previous record had been reached (6.8 bcm). The trend continued in 2018: over the January-October 2018 period, Gazprom's gas shipments to Austria surged by a third compared to the same period of 2017, reaching 8.8 bcm.