OMV/EconGas: Currently no delivery of Russian natural gas to Austria – but gas supply for Austria still guaranteed
January 7, 2009 - 6:40am (CET)
Following yesterday’s reduction of natural gas supplies to Austria (deliveries had been reduced to 10%), now there are no deliveries of Russian natural gas to Austria at all.
Despite the current cancellations of Russian gas shipments, the gas supply to Austrian customers under current conditions (consumption levels, weather) can still be guaranteed due to compensating measures via storage facilities; domestic production; and imports from Western Europe - for the time being.
OMV subsidiary EconGas can rely on storage reserves for a total volume of 1.7 bcm. In order to further guarantee supply security, storage reserves have been made available in their entirety and supplied via the Austrian pipeline system. So the present cancellation of Russian natural gas can be fully compensated through the company’s storage reserves at the moment.
Today at 1pm, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs, the energy regulation advisory board, will discuss various energy supply scenarios for Austria and discuss a plan, if necessary, to limit the gas consumption of big industries during peak use. Gas demand for households and trade businesses will be guaranteed under any circumstances.
OMV/EconGas will of course continue to be permanently in contact with Gazprom/Gazprom export, and the responsible authorities, and will report on further developments.
Background information
Austrian gas consumption and import volume:
Austrian gas consumption amounts to around 8 bcm per year. Approximately 51% of this volume comes from Russia, 31% from Norway and other countries and 18% from Austrian own production. With its Austrian production of 1.31 bcm per year, OMV meets 16% of the domestic gas demand.
OMV Gas & Power GmbH
OMV Gas & Power GmbH is the leading OMV company in the gas and power business area. Its activities include Gas Supply, Marketing and Trading (with the subsidiaries EconGas and the Petrom gas activities), Gas Logistics (with the subsidiaries OMV Gas, Nabucco Gas Pipeline International, Adria LNG, Gate terminal in Rotterdam) and the Central European Gas Hub making it one of the leading gas trading and logistics companies in Central Europe. OMV Gas has natural gas storage facilities for a total volume of 2.1 bcm. Following the entry into the power business and the resulting expansion of the value generation chain, a new business area Power (with the subsidiary OMV Power International) has been established.
In the Gas Supply, Marketing and Trading business area OMV Gas and EconGas sold 7.8 bcm of gas in 2007, with a further 5.3 bcm coming from Petrom Gas. Apart from Austria, natural gas is transported via OMV pipelines to Germany, Italy, France, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary, making the OMV gas logistics business area an important component of the European natural gas network and a central gas hub in Europe. The Central European Gas Hub handled a trading volume of 17.7 bcm of gas in 2007 and is thus one of the most important trading platforms in continental Europe.
EconGas GmbH:
EconGas is a joint venture of OMV Gas & Power, EVN, WIEN ENERGIE, EGBV, BEGAS and Linz AG. Its core business is the direct sale of natural gas to business customers with an annual consumption of more than 500,000 cbm in Austria and Europe, as well as gas trading on international markets. EconGas is based in Austria and has subsidiaries in Germany, Italy and Hungary. EconGas has storage facilities for a total volume of 2.2 bcm in Austria. At present storage reserves amount to a total volume of 1.7 bcm.
OMV Aktiengesellschaft:
With Group sales of EUR 20.04 bn and a workforce of 33,665 employees in 2007, OMV Aktiengesellschaft is one of Austria’s largest listed industrial companies. As the leading oil and gas group in Central Europe, OMV is active in Refining and Marketing (R&M) in 13 countries. In Exploration and Production (E&P) OMV is active in 20 countries on five continents. OMV Gas & Power (G&P) sells more than 13 bcm gas a year. Via Baumgarten, one of the most important gas hub in Europe, approximately 64 bcm gas is transported annually. OMV’s Central European Gas Hub is amongst the three largest hubs in Europe.
OMV is the largest oil and gas group in Central Europe, with oil and gas reserves of approx. 1.22 bn boe, daily production of around 316,000 boe and an annual refining capacity of 26 mn t. OMV has 2,524 filling stations in 13 countries. The market share of the group in the R&M business segment in the Danube Region is now 20%.
OMV further strengthened its leading position in the European growth belt through the acquisition of 41.58% of Petrol Ofisi, Turkey’s leading company in the retail and commercial business.
In June 2006, OMV has established the OMV Future Energy Fund, a wholly owned subsidiary, to support projects in renewable energy with more than EUR 100 mn. In this way OMV aims at initiating the switch from a pure oil and gas group to an energy group with renewable energy in its portfolio.
OMV: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
OMV is a member of the U.N. Global Compact and actively committed to the values enshrined in its Code of Conduct. These include a strong sense of responsibility towards the social and natural environment in economically weak regions. OMV works hard to address economic, environmental and social issues related to its operations. Its CSR activities are fully documented in biannual performance reports compiled according to Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. The "Global 100 Ranking" presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos 2008 ranks OMV as one of the six most sustainable energy companies worldwide.