Russia's gas deliveries despite a stop: Who benefits in Austria?

Russia's gas deliveries despite a stop: Who benefits in Austria?

Vienna, Austria - The gas supply in Austria is facing dramatic changes! After Gazprom hired the delivery to the OMV on the basis of an arbitration judgment, Russian gas continues to flow to Austria, but no longer directly to the OMV. The Austrian oil company had refused to pay 230 million euros to the Russian State Exporter, which led to the stop of deliveries. Instead, the gas is now being sold via stock exchanges and could get back into the hands of the OMV on it, as vienna.at reported.

detours of the Russian gas

Despite the cosmopolitan legal dispute and Putin's final delivery stop on November 16, 2024, an interesting phenomenon is shown. Like merkur.de , Russian gas apparently continues through detours to Austria. The OMV had moved around 17 million cubic meters of gas a day until it stopped. This gas is now apparently bought up by other buyers and intermediate dealers and resold in Europe. Slovakia is suspected of performing as a middleman, as their inquiries about Russian gas continue to exist, while gas prices from Russian sources are still cheaper than alternatives from other providers.

The fact that the rising deliveries from Slovakia have risen to the Czech Republic since October 2024 have been particularly explosive. This suggests that Russian natural gas may continue to be delivered via detours to the EU. At a time when the EU deals intensively with the exit from Russian energy deliveries, such developments do not remain without effects on the geopolitical situation in Europe and represent a challenge for gas supply security.