“Use it or lose it”: Austria threatens Gazprom because of unfilled gas storage
“Use it or lose it”
Austria threatens Gazprom because of unfilled gas storage
05/13/2022 3:53 p.m
A gas storage facility in Austria, which is important for Germany, is causing trouble in Vienna due to a lack of Russian deliveries.
If the partly state-owned Russian company Gazprom still does not fill the Haidach storage facility near the Bavarian border, the Austrian government will take measures to ensure the use of the large storage facility by other companies, the environment and energy ministry said on Friday. “We are now creating the legal framework,” said Chancellor Karl Nehammer of the “Kleine Zeitung”.
Haidach near Salzburg is one of the largest underground natural gas storage facilities in Europe and is used to supply Germany. However, Haidach is also of strategic importance for Austria because part of the gas flowing to Germany is pumped back to finance the federal states of Tyrol and Vorarlberg.
Haidach is used by companies from the Gazprom group. A change in the law in Austria would be necessary for gas storage by other providers. “It means ‘use it or lose it,'” said Nehammer. “If you use it, everything is fine, if you don’t use it, other companies can access it.” Similar regulations already apply to pipelines.