E-Control should have seen OMV gas contracts

According to the Court of Auditors Neither the responsible ministries nor E-Control nor the state holding company ÖBAG were well prepared for the gas crisis. That’s how it was in the opinion of the Court of Auditors Mistakethat in the period examined from 2018 to 2022, neither the Ministry of Energy nor the regulatory authority under it, E-Control complete insight in the gas supply contracts between the OMV and the Russian one Gazprom-Group would have received.

OMV has terminated its supply contract with Gazprom after a court dispute terminated in December. Since then, OMV has not been supplied with Russian gas. The transit stop imposed by Ukraine has been in effect since January 1st no more Russian gas at all through the pipeline that runs through Ukraine and Slovakia to Austria. This means that alternatives to the largest gas supplier to date must be found.

Large areas of redaction in the OMV contract

Natural gas companies would also have to keep operating and business secrets treat confidentiallyadmits the Court of Auditors (RH) in its report on natural gas supply security published on Friday. Nevertheless, the natural gas companies are obliged to report to the Ministry of Energy and the regulatory authority E-Control Access to documents – this also applies to gas supply contracts.

“E-Control was unable to confirm to the Court of Auditors that it had complete access to all contracts and contract components,” writes the RH. “Parts of the long-term contract between OMV and Gazprom were extensively blackened.” Die Reporting requirements be so not enforced and fines provided for violations have not been imposed.

Austria was ill-prepared for a crisis

The contract was also not available to the Ministry of Climate Protection during the period under review. “This would be especially true given the need for action in 2022 of overriding public interest “Authorities of EU member states are obliged to do so Monitoring for security of supply to carry out, emphasizes the RH. “However, with incomplete or out-of-date data, neither Austria nor the EU were well prepared in the event of a crisis.

The State holding company ÖBAGwhich holds 31.5 percent of OMV, accuse the auditors of only acting on an ad hoc basis on behalf of the Ministry of Finance. ÖBAG’s tasks also include: Securing the business locationwhich also includes energy supply.

E-Control: There was reliable data

E-Control board member Wolfgang Urbantschitsch has criticism immediately rejected: The Court of Auditors gives the impression that “the Republic is in… Blindflug been on the move in their crisis management – and that is simply not true“, said Urbantschitsch to the APA. “The fact that there was no reliable data to assess the situation is simply wrong.” The fact that the turn of the year with the stop of gas transit through Ukraine went so well was also the result of the work in the past three years, all actors have acted professionally.

We even went to court against OMV

The E-Control board emphasized that the OMV gas contracts were probably received before 2022. You have that enforced with a notice and even went to court for it. It is true that parts of the contract handed over were blacked out, “but the information we provided Assessment of gas flows and the supplies needed not blackened“In addition, we also have many other sources of information and were not dependent on the contract to estimate the gas flows – OMV fulfilled its information obligations.

ÖBAG is also of the opinion that this is possible The Court of Auditors’ accusation is in vain. “After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, OMV – in coordination with ÖBAG – diversified its gas supply sources,” it said in a written statement. “The result of these efforts can currently be seen in the secure gas supply.”