Austrian OMV was awarded compensation from Gazprom: they do not rule out stopping supplies

Austrian OMV announced that it had won an arbitration claim from Gazprom Export in a dispute over the suspension of supplies under a "German contract" and demanded 230 million euros from the Russian company. Austria does not rule out that the current import of Russian gas to Austria may also stop.

Austrian OMV announced that it had received an arbitration award on a lawsuit against Gazprom Export under a contract under which gas supplies went to Germany. In the summer of 2022, they decreased, and in September they stopped completely. The company demanded compensation by filing arbitration in January 2023, as it was forced to buy the dropped volumes at a much higher price on the market.

"OMV has decided to recover the damages awarded in the amount of 230 million euros plus interest and expenses, which positively affects the compensation of the corresponding financial losses incurred in 2022. The company is taking the necessary further steps to enforce the arbitration award with immediate effect," OMV said.

The company explained that there are no claims under the contract for the supply of Russian gas to Austria, but they do not rule out that they will stop because of the arbitration decision.

"The contractual relations under the Austrian supply contract with Gazprom Export are expected to deteriorate, including a potential shutdown of gas supplies. In this case, small one—time hedging losses may occur, but they will clearly be outweighed by the positive effects of the recovered losses," OMV said.

According to the company, the monthly supply of Russian gas to Austria is about 480 million cubic meters per month. OMV is the largest recipient of fuel from Russia, which goes through Ukraine — 40% of transit.

In April, Gazprom filed a lawsuit against OMV Gas Marketing & Trading with the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, which banned the Austrian company from international arbitration proceedings. Gazprom Export did not recognize the violation of contracts and the legality of the stated claims for damages. Obviously, we are talking about gas supplies for Germany via Nord Stream. In the summer, due to sanctions restrictions on the repair of turbines of the compressor station, supplies via the gas pipeline decreased, stopped at the end of August, and on September 26 saboteurs blew up the highway in the Baltic Sea.

The day before, OMV announced that they were hedging (insuring) Russian volumes are a month in advance and when stopped, it will be necessary to purchase any missing volumes on the spot market.

"If prices at European hubs rise in response to supply cuts, we may face a certain risk. However, this risk is limited in the short term — a maximum of one month — and, in our opinion, is limited financially," said OMV CEO Alfred Stern.

He cited a forecast that a price increase for every 52 euros per thousand cubic meters would bring losses to OMV of 25 million euros.

"However, please keep in mind that in such a scenario we will benefit from higher prices at European gas hubs, since we produce gas ourselves. From today's point of view, the overall impact of a possible shutdown of Russian gas supplies on OMV is estimated to be quite small," said Alfred Stern.

Alexey Grivach, Deputy director of the National Energy Security Fund (NWF), noted to EADaily that there is no point in talking about stopping transit from the point of view of OMV.

"If they are allowed to broadcast the likely price increase to consumers, they, of course, can benefit in the short term from the transit crisis. But European consumers, European industry and the European energy system will definitely lose from this if transit is stopped physically," the expert noted.