As of: 07/26/2022 7:08 p.m
Austria takes over the filling of its gas storage facility in Haidach: The Ministry of Energy declared that it had withdrawn control from Gazprom because it was not used – and is coordinating with Germany.
From August 1st, the partially unused natural gas storage facility in Haidach near Salzburg in Austria will be refilled. This was announced by the Austrian Ministry of Energy.
The Russian natural gas company Gazprom, which previously supplied some of the underground storage facilities, had not used them since the spring – but since the beginning of July it has been prohibited in Austria, according to an amendment to the Gas Industry Act, not to use booked storage capacity. This means that the Haidach natural gas storage facility can be withdrawn from Gazprom.
Haidach’s technical operator, RAG Austria AG, has now been commissioned by the ministry to remarket part of the storage capacity and thus open it up to other energy companies.
Solidarity agreement with Germany
It remains to be seen whether enough gas can be stored in the large Haidach natural gas storage facility for the coming winter. The aim of the Austrian federal government is to fill all Austrian gas storage facilities to at least 80 percent by winter.
In the past 15 years, mainly industrial companies and households in Bavaria have been supplied from Haidach. Austria recently announced that it also intends to connect its domestic gas network to the facility with a total of around three billion cubic meters of storage capacity: the storage facilities are a central safety buffer for the winter, stressed the Austrian Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler. In the German state of Bavaria, this announcement caused displeasure.
The Austrian government had already spoken in May of wanting to connect the natural gas storage facility in Haidach to the Austrian gas network – and to coordinate the issue with major customers in Germany, as Gewessler emphasized. In mid-July, Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck traveled to Vienna and signed a solidarity agreement with Gewessler. The Haidach natural gas storage facility is part of this agreement.
Bavaria fears disadvantages
However, the agreement between Berlin and Vienna did not reassure Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder. He fears severe consequences for the economy of his federal state should there be a gas shortage. That is why Söder has asked the federal government to clarify Bavaria’s gas supply from the Haidacher storage facility: the federal government must make the agreement with Austria transparent and clear when and how much gas will flow to Bavaria.
Söder is pushing for a binding contract with the neighboring country and announced that he would go to Haidach to “get an idea”. In their solidarity agreement, Germany and Austria have agreed to fill the Haidach gas storage facility as a joint responsibility.