Austrian oil and gas giant OMV AG (OMVKY) said
Thursday it was ready to tap its reserves if Russia's halt of natural gas deliveries to Ukraine were to hit its own imports.
OMV, the largest oil and gas provider in central Europe,
said that so far there had been no problems with supply to Austria after Russia's Gazprom cut delivery to Ukraine, through which western Europe gets much of its needs.
The company added that "it could not yet ascertain" whether the
Russia-Ukraine dispute would lead to a
reduction in supplies to Europe.
"Econgaz, the OMV unit, currently holds 1.7 billion cubic meters of gas in
stock which it can use in the event supplies are cut," it said, adding
that these reserves should be able to last about three months.
Austria, which consumes eight billion cubic meters of gas per
year, gets 51% of its needs from Russia.
Russia earlier Thursday halted gas supply to Ukraine after the two ex-Soviet neighbors failed to agree on
payment terms.
Ukraine's gas company, Naftogaz, separately confirmed that the
volume of gas it was receiving from Russia had dropped, but promised that
transit of supplies meant for customers downstream in Europe would be
guaranteed.
OMV said it was in constant touch with OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS), its supplier
since 1968, stressing that up to now the Russian firm had always been "a
trustworthy partner."
OMV and Gazprom joined forces last year to set up a major distribution platform
based in Austria, called the Central European Gas Hub, which supplies Croatia,
France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia as well as the local market.