90 percent storage level: the path of natural gas through Austria
Three days – that’s how long the warning time is, Russia would also turn off the flow of gas through the last pipeline to Europe. You would notice this immediately in the Baumgarten gas station in eastern Austria, which is operated by Gas Connect Austria. “If something changes in the gas flows to Austria, the upstream infrastructure operators will notice that, and the European system is very well networked. The information flows faster than the gas to Baumgarten,” says Stefan Wagenhofer, Managing Director of Gas Connect Austria, who is responsible for gas transport in Austria.
When it arrives in Baumgarten, the gas is processed – measured, cleaned and dehumidified – and then fed back into the Austrian pipelines in compressed form. Wagenhofer compares the route to households and companies with the road network: “The high-pressure level is the gas highway, so to speak, where pressure WILL build up speed, and then the gas rolls to your home, which means it then goes onto the country road, then further down the district road to the alley where you live and it comes out with a simple push.”
The pressure in the gas network is adjusted according to the large gas consumers, the industry requires a maximum of around 40 bar – this value must therefore also be achieved in the large pipelines. If less gas comes from a pipeline from Russia, for example, Gas Connect is responsible for mixing in other gas in order to be able to maintain the pressure in the network.
Gateway of entry for Russian gas
Originally, the aim of the Baumgarten gas station was to distribute Russian gas in Europe – today natural gas from other sources IS also sent through the pipelines. The station was built in 1959 – OMV signed the first supply contract with Russia almost ten years later.
In September 1968, Russian natural gas flowed to Austria for the first time. Over the years, Baumgarten has become more important for the gas supply in Europe – gas is currently distributed to Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary and of course handed over to the local gas suppliers.
Full memory as the ultimate goal
However, with the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the Russian gas stream only became a better river. In view of the developments, it quickly became clear: In order for Europe to get through the winter reasonably well, the motto for the summer had to be “Save”.
shipment notice
The Ö1 business magazine “Saldo” also deals with the topic of gas supply in Austria on Friday at 9.42 a.m. – more on this in oe1.ORF.at/saldo.
The EU gave itself 80 percent as the lowest storage target. The European storage facilities are now more than 93 percent full. In terms of percentage, Austria lagged behind the EU average for a long time. On the one hand, this can be explained by the fact that the domestic storage facilities are large. On the other hand, there was a very specific reason – and that was in Haidach.
storage in rock
The second largest natural gas storage facility in Europe is located in the Upper Austrian municipality. Only one plant in Lower Saxony, Germany, holds more gas. There used to be a natural gas reservoir here. From 1997 the gas inside was promoted. Right from the start with the plan to later build a natural gas storage facility there.
Because the soil under Haidach has very special properties. At a depth of around 1.5 kilometers there is a thick layer of porous sandstone covering an area of around 17.5 square kilometers. The “thickness” is up to 100 meters, surrounded by a layer of sealing barrels, says Georg Schober. The engineer himself grew up not far from the warehouse. Now he runs the facility.
The Gazprom dilemma
Schober is employed by RAG Austria AG. The gas storage company is responsible for the technical operation of the facility. RAG also helped develop the storage facility – together with Gazprom. Because the Russians were on board from the start.
It is said that Gazprom has also been a reliable partner for a long time. But that changed more than a year ago. Since the spring of 2021, Gazprom and its subsidiary GSA have stored virtually no more gas in storage – with a small exception on a few days in December last year. The GSA literally let the memory run empty. In hindsight, it is not a bold thesis to see here a preparation for the war of aggression in the Ukraine.
Admittedly, the public did not really notice the lack of storage until this spring. When, on the one hand, the gas quantities stored throughout Europe were running out and, on the other hand, it became clear that as much gas as possible would have to be stored again in the coming months.
“Quite a challenge”
All of a sudden, the Haidach storage facility was a topic of political and social discussion. And in the summer, after a corresponding change in the law, he was withdrawn from Gazprom. Storage then also began in Haidach at the beginning of August. From that point on, “very large amounts of power were needed from us so that we could store the gas accordingly,” says Stefan Lehner, who manages all storage operations for RAG. In general, “in the history of Haidach” there have never been such large storage quantities within one season. “It was quite a challenge,” says Lehner.
On Thursday, the domestic storage facilities – including Haidach – finally reached a storage level of 90 percent. For a long time, it was not really known who owned this gas. Only since last week has everyone been able to get at least an overview of ownership on a dashboard from the Department of Energy. This shows that around 60 percent of the 86 terawatt hours of gas currently stored are intended for domestic consumers, i.e. for energy suppliers, households and industry.
billion for the reserve
An uncomplicated part of this sum is the strategic gas reserve. The state cushion is 20 terawatt hours and is intended to provide security in the event of an emergency. The state has paid a lot for the reserve, which was only created this year. Austria spent 3.95 billion euros on this, explains Carola Milgram. She heads the gas department at the regulatory authority E-Control.
The billions for the gas reserve is just one example of how much it cost Europe to store. Gas from sources outside of Russia has been bought feverishly in recent months. Much of this came to Europe from overseas as liquefied natural gas (LNG). The transport of the gas, which is liquefied at low temperatures, is complex and therefore more expensive than pipeline gas.
Gas price up and down
In addition, the high demand drove up the gas price. In September, the daily prices for natural gas in Europe reached levels in excess of 300 euros per kilowatt hour. With the turnover of the European storage targets, the prices will of course drop noticeably. Mild prices in October in combination with full storage facilities are currently ensuring that natural gas traded on the exchange for a short period of time hardly costs more than 50 euros per kWh.
That WILL almost certainly change again as demand increases. The big unknown is still how much gas comes from Russia. The strategic gas reserve is set to last three years. Should the gas supplies from Russia dry up completely, Austria will probably have to use up part of it this winter. In the coming storage season, prices could be expected to rise sharply again.
Storage for Germany – with line to Austria
A part of the strategic reserve was also stored in Haidach in the past few weeks. However, most of the gas in the storage facility is intended for German consumers. Tyrol and Vorarlberg, which are not connected to the eastern Austrian gas network, also have gas stored in Haidach.
The storage facility itself was not previously connected to the domestic transmission network. Although in exceptional cases, gas could also be brought from the storage facility to eastern Austria via a small detour via Germany. In the years 2018 and 2019, such a “reverse flow” occurred in isolated cases, says Lehner from RAG.
But that’s not enough for domestic politics. This year, for example, a law stipulated that Haidach had to be connected to the domestic distribution network via a direct inner-Austrian line. This announcement was not only well received by the German neighbors. A separate contract between Germany and Austria is intended to ensure that gas flows between the two countries are secured. The contract has now been finalized, although not yet signed.
The connection of Haidach to the Austrian network should actually be completed before the end of the year. The connection was not entirely trivial. Among other things, a pressurized line had to be drilled into.
After saving is before saving
Of course, such technical requirements seem low in view of the challenges that Europe and Austria will face in the coming months and years. There is a European consensus to get rid of fossil fuels and thus also of natural gas. But it is also clear that this will not be possible overnight.
Europe will continue to need natural gas for years to come. One of the big questions will be where this is coming from. The fact that Austria just secured a shipload of LNG from Abu Dhabi on Thursday is just a small piece of the puzzle.