The domestic energy company OMV has granted the commission specially set up by the Climate Protection Ministry access to the gas supply contracts with the Russian company Gazprom. The ministry’s request to disclose the contracts in accordance with the applicable legal basis was “fully complied with,” OMV said on Wednesday. It also stressed that OMV’s “business decisions” remained “unaffected” by the commission.
“OMV has consistently diversified its gas supply portfolio since 2022 and can meet its delivery obligations in any delivery scenario,” the energy group said. “All contract customers can be supplied entirely with non-Russian gas.”
Climate and Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) has, as reported, set up a commission chaired by Irmgard Griss, former President of the Supreme Court, to examine, among other things, a way out of the contract with Gazprom.
The contract between OMV and Gazprom was extended by twelve years from 2028 to 2040 in 2018 in the presence of then Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The exact content of the contract was previously known only to the partially state-owned OMV, but not to the government or the regulatory authority E-Control.
The establishment of the commission is not without controversy. Coalition partner ÖVP and parts of the opposition see the Green minister’s move as an election campaign tactic.
