Austria will arrive in autumn without NATURAL GAS in the deposits!

The Haidach gas storage site in Austria, one of the largest in Central Europe, may not be able to receive natural gas ahead of next winter due to a lack of connections other than Russia's Gazprom. Austrian energy officials said Friday in Bloomberg .

The Haidach site was built and used by Gazprom and is one of the largest in Central Europe. It has the capacity to contain enough natural gas to cover four months of consumption in Austria.

Earlier this month, however, Gazprom stopped supplying gas to Gazprom Germany GmbH, its former subsidiary, which Germany seized a few weeks ago. In retaliation for Western sanctions, Russia has imposed sanctions on Gazprom's branches in Europe, banning them from supplying Russian gas. Without Russian gas, these branches are literally useless as they have no access to other gas.

Gas supply to some Gazprom Germany units has been cut off, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck told parliament earlier this month.

"Gazprom and its branches are affected," said Minister Habeck quoted by Reuters, adding that "this means that some branches no longer receive gas from Russia".

The disruption of Russian supplies to Gazprom's German unit means it cannot fill the huge underground storage facility near Salzburg, Austria. The storage site is currently connected only to Gazprom's pipeline network, it has no other suppliers.

Austria will then have to build a new link from the nearest pipeline, the Penta West, Austrian operator Gas Connect told Bloomberg in an email response to questions. Here is a map of the main Austrian pipelines

While the current situation of flows and reserves is represented below

Construction cannot take place before the start of next winter and Austria may have to deal with the need to fill the storage site, but not have the gas to do so. This would make Austria, but also Germany that used this site, dependent on storage in other states, primarily Italy.

As of May 26, Austria's gas storage capacity was 30% full, below the EU average of 44%, with storage at GSA Haidach at zero, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, EU member states are now required to reach a minimum gas storage level of 80% by 1 November to protect themselves from potential supply disruptions. Starting in 2023, the target will be raised to 90% full gas storage by 1 November. Austria appears to be a long way from achieving this goal.

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The article Austria will arrive in autumn without NATURAL GAS in the depots! comes from ScenariEconomici.it .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/austria-gas-naturale/ on Sat, 28 May 2022 09:00:50 +0000.