Russian gas still reaching Austria despite OMV cut-off, data shows
By Jan Lopatka and Vladimir Soldatkin
PRAGUE/MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian gas appeared to still be reaching Austria despite Gazprom cutting off flows to top Austrian importer OMV over the weekend due to a contractual dispute, data on flows for Monday showed.
Slovakia is a transit route mostly for Russian gas flowing through Ukraine to Austria and the Czech Republic.
Flows from Slovakia to Austria were around 27 million cubic metres (mcm) per day before Gazprom supplies to OMV were stopped on Saturday and then fell by around 17% to around 22.6 mcm/day on Sunday, according to preliminary data from the Slovakian transmission system operator Eustream.
Nominations for planned shipments are for 22.3 million cubic meters for Monday from Slovakia into Austria, data form Eustream showed. Partial preliminary data showed around a third of that amount had already gone through since the morning.
Austria’s OMV had been receiving about 17 mcm/day from Gazprom before the cut-off, and those volumes are now finding new buyers or middlemen in Europe who stepped in to snap up unsold gas, companies and sources said, and data showed.
It was not clear who was buying the gas and possibly reselling the volumes previously delivered to OMV.
Gazprom on Saturday halted supplies to OMV after the Austrian company threatened to impound some of the Russian state firm’s gas as compensation for an arbitration it had won over a contractual dispute.
Russian gas is still being sold in significant volumes to Slovakia and Hungary, as well as to the Czech Republic which does not have a direct contract. Smaller volumes are going to Italy and Serbia.
Slovakia’s state-owned gas company SPP, which has a long-term contract with Gazprom for its Slovak consumers, did not respond when asked if it was buying some of the volume that would usually go to OMV, for trading or other purposes.
** For an interactive chart:
Separately, flows of gas from Slovakia to the Czech Republic have risen sharply to 74% of the total Czech imports since Oct. 1, although Czech companies do not have any contracts with Gazprom.
Traders and analysts said this may be gas originating in Russia and delivered via the Turkstream pipeline or Ukraine, which may be in surplus due to full storage sites, and also cheaper to deliver to the Czech Republic than gas from the West because of a German levy which makes transit expensive.
Two major Czech gas buyers told Reuters they were not buying Russian gas. But one of those two buyers and an energy market analyst said Czech companies’ trading partners may in effect be doing so by buying gas on the market and delivering it to the Czech customers from the east.
Ukraine has said it will not extend a gas transit deal with Russia once a five-year agreement expires at the end of the year.
Dutch and British wholesale prices fluctuated on Monday, supported by colder weather forecasts and a drop in Norwegian supply, but capped by Russian flows via Ukraine remaining stable and more liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes heading to Europe.
The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub inched up by 0.26 euro to 45.98 euros per megawatt hour by 1323 GMT, LSEG data showed.
** For an interactive chart:
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow; Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet in Prague; Nora Buli in Oslo; Writing by Nina Chestney; Editing by Kim Coghill, Mark Potter and Susan Fenton)
