Russia’s war against Ukraine has forced Austria to question its dependence on Russian gas and oil.
Austrian oil and gas concern OMV and Slovak company Transpetrol have stopped work on a pipeline project that would have carried Russian oil from Druzhba to Slovakia to the Schwechat oil refinery near Vienna. Austrian public broadcaster ORF reported this on Monday, February 12.
“For about 20 years, OMV, together with the Slovak company Transpetrol, has been trying to connect the pipeline from Schwechat through Slovakia directly to the Russian network. Now the project has finally been stopped,” said the statement.
All crude oil transported to Austria now goes to OMV’s Schwechat refinery (in the state of Lower Austria near Vienna). It gets there via the Adria-Vienna pipeline, which connects the Transalpine Pipeline on the Italian-Austrian border to the Schwechat refinery.
A new route through Slovakia was initiated by OMV in 2003. It envisages the construction of only 62 km between Schwechat and Bratislava to connect directly to Russia’s Druzhba oil pipeline. The route through the Black Sea, Bosporus and Italian Trieste is longer and more expensive before the oil is finally refined in Schwechat.
The project has been delayed, in part, due to the “energy transition” and the lack of need for another oil pipeline. Russia’s war against Ukraine, which began in February 2022, has forced Austria to question its dependence on Russian gas and oil. OMV did not provide comment in response to a media request.
The Austrian Ministry of Climate Protection states that the pipeline is no longer needed. It is planned to transport Russian oil from the Druzhba oil pipeline to the plant in Schwechat. However, as of February 2023, Austria will no longer import oil from Russia.
As we wrote earlier, the US Treasury sent letters warning of imprisonment in the case of violation of the price ceiling for Russian oil to 30 companies that control up to hundreds of oil tankers.
Source: korrespondent
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