“These are serious figures, yes,” confirms the head of communications at OMV in an interview with eXXpress that all Austrian and European gas companies supply their latest data to the AGSI (Aggregated Gas Storage Inventory). Interesting figures can be read in the history column in the Austria folder: It is true that the gas reserves were 18.09% at the end of February (February 22, 2022) – as the Green Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler also said in interviews has claimed.
But then the storage quantities in the Austrian gas tanks quickly became significantly lower: on March 4, the storage tanks were only 15.92% full. And on March 14, two days ago, only 13.89%…
Both OMV and the federal government emphasize that “gas will continue to come from Russia”. But as data from the AGSI statistics show, significantly more is consumed or resold in Austria than flows to us.
On some days, the reduction in stocks was even 0.38 to 0.39% – and that without a delivery stop on the part of the Russian contractual partners.
And these numbers are now cause for some concern: If gas stocks are reduced by 4 percentage points in 22 days, the gas stocks that have been left up to now will be completely used up in about 70 to 80 days, i.e. by the end of May.
Sure: At the end of May there is hardly any need to heat, even cold showers will be bearable for a few weeks or even months in summer. But according to economists, without additional gas supplies, there are much bigger problems: without gas, large industries and commercial enterprises will soon come to a standstill, the consequences would be an immediate undersupply of the population and sudden mass unemployment.
In addition, three gas-fired power plants in Austria still generate more than 16% of the electricity demand in this country – a failure of these energy sources would also have to be compensated for at great expense (if there is any supply on the energy market at all).
The whole of Austria will soon want a ceasefire between the conflicting parties in the war over Ukraine. With immediate massive gas delivery by the end of May at the latest.
