Chancellor Karl Nehammer said today that Austria’s gas storage facilities are 93% full, leaving the country well-prepared to handle the suspension of Russian gas supplies.
“This is a situation we have anticipated since the start of the war in Ukraine, and we have been preparing for it,” Mr. Nehammer stated, assuring that no household would be left without heating.
Russia has notified Austria that it will halt gas deliveries starting Saturday, signalling the imminent end of Moscow’s last significant gas exports to Europe.
The halt leaves Hungary and Slovakia as the only major recipients of Russian gas, a stark shift from the decades-long dominance where Russia supplied 40% of the EU’s gas needs before its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Austria was the first Western European nation to purchase Russian gas, signing a contract with the USSR in 1968, just before the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
The gas relationship between Austria’s OMV and Russia’s Gazprom is set to conclude this year following a contractual dispute. Both companies have been approached for comment.
