Energy crisis: Diesel in Austria is becoming increasingly scarce
A loss of production in the largest refinery and the high demand have occasionally led to empty pumps in Austria. Although most of the oil flows from Kazakhstan, Russia has a strong leverage.
If you drive a diesel in Austria, you could soon despair not only because of the horrendous prices at the pump – but in the worst case you could end up empty-handed. Last week, reports in the Alpine Republic caused a stir that diesel was no longer available at some gas stations. The country is running out of diesel, headlined the conservative Press. The government in Vienna, above all Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) and Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP), immediately tried to calm down. A supply shortage is currently not to be expected, emphasized the top government last Wednesday.
In the background, the government, together with the semi-state mineral oil company OMV, should have their hands full to ensure that fuel continues to flow. The assessments of Hedwig Doloszeski, Chair of the Mineral Oils Association in the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKÖ), show that the situation is more than serious. “The Austrian mineral oil product market is currently in an exceptional situation,” Doloszeski confirmed to the newspaper today. Austria consumes far more diesel than it can produce itself, and the majority – almost 60 percent – is already dependent on imports.
An accident hit the largest refinery in Austria hard
With the proportion that Austria produces itself, there has been a serious problem for a few weeks: the country’s largest refinery in Schwechat near Vienna can currently only produce around 20 percent of the usual amounts of fuel. The reason: During maintenance work on the main system at the beginning of June, there was an accident with serious consequences, the full repair will take until autumn.
According to its own statements, OMV managed to compensate for the failures by optimizing another, smaller plant in Schwechat and switching to other locations. However, the situation could also deteriorate for other reasons.
It is true that Austria imports just over ten percent of its oil from Russia. The main supplier Kazakhstan, from which Austria received over 2.7 million tons of oil in 2020, is dependent on pipelines and delivery routes via the Czech Black Sea ports – to a considerable extent across Russia, as the Austrian Energy Agency also emphasizes. As early as April, their experts warned that the consequences of an EU import ban on Russian oil should be looked at more closely. It is unclear how such an embargo could affect the transit of Kazakh oil, which is clear for Austria.
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Finally summer travel again? Gasoline consumption in Austria is above average
Due to the run on heating oil after the beginning of the war, Austria had to fall back on the strategic oil reserve for the first time last March. Aside from the question of production and reserves, increased fuel consumption exacerbates the situation. This is mainly due to the high volume of travel after more than two years of the pandemic and the lifting of travel restrictions. The start of Russia’s war of aggression in February was followed by a significant increase in the movement of goods in the EU. To date, Austria has also refrained from filling restrictions at the pump. In addition, there are capacity restrictions at other large refineries in EU countries due to maintenance work that has been planned for a long time.
All other European countries are also currently consuming more fuel than in the past two years. But now there is the problem of production. Incidentally, the Alpine Republic imports most of its diesel from Germany, which is also dependent on Russian oil for production. However, a spokesman for OMV emphasizes to our editorial team that around two thirds of the diesel that will be activated on the market in the coming months has now been secured. Fluctuations in availability over the summer months are solely due to transport difficulties.
The Nehammer government will not tighten the speed limit
However, the pressure on the conservative-green government to finally take countermeasures in order to avoid fuel shortages and possible rationing towards the end of the summer is increasing. However, one does not want to push through to measures such as 100 km/h on the motorways. Energy Minister Gewessler’s recommendations remain: “Off the gas” is “always a good idea”.