Austrian energy company OMV to continue importing Russian gas

The Austrian OMV energy company's CEO, Alfred Stern, told the Financial Times his company didn't plan to exit its long-term supply contract with Russia’s Gazprom signed in 2018 and going until 2040.

“As long as Gazprom will supply . . . we will continue to take these quantities from Gazprom,” Stern said.

OMV supplies about 30% of the Austrian gas market, and its biggest shareholder is the Austrian government.

The company is also one of the five Western financial backers of Gazprom NordStream 2 worth 11 billion euros, which was halted days before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

In June 2022, the EU introduced a ban on importing Russian oil, but gas is not subjected to such sanctions.

Sanctions on gas imports have been discussed by the EU, but no consensus has emerged so far.

Germany and the Czech Republic have reduced Russian gas imports to zero, but Austria has made little to reduce its reliance on Russian gas.

Ukraine, allies must do more to hit Russia’s economy, says Moral Rating Agency head

As Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny exposed Russia’s political weakness, there’s an opportunity to follow up with an economic punch by targeting foreign companies that stayed in the country. This is the belief of Mark Dixon, the director of the Moral Rating Agency, which scrutinizes foreign companies tha…

The Kyiv IndependentIgor Kossov