Austria plans to spare industry some rationing if it adds to gas reserves

Mayr-Melnhof Karton AG

17/05/2022 16:09

VIENNA, May 17 (Reuters) - Austria plans to exempt large
industrial companies from at least some gas rationing if they
keep up to half a year's supply in national storage facilities
the country is racing to fill, the government said on Tuesday.
    Austria obtains 80% of its natural gas from Russia, a heavy
reliance that it is trying to end in the wake of the invasion of
Ukraine and the threat of Russian gas supplies being cut off,
though the government says finding enough alternatives will take
years.
    Austria has drawn up an emergency plan for a possible gas
shortage while trying to fill its storage facilities to 80% of
their capacity, the fifth-largest national capacity https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/QANDA_22_1937
 in the European Union. Austria's emergency plan provides for
rationing of companies' gas before households'.
    "Companies that have stored their gas reserves (in national
storage) will not immediately be affected by energy control
measures but rather will be able to continue to dispose of their
 gas," Chancellor Karl Nehammer said in a statement issued by
his office, using a term for rationing under the emergency plan.
    "Should it nonetheless become necessary in the event of an
absolute crisis to access this gas in order to maintain our
country's structural supply, the company would be compensated
accordingly," he said.
    A draft legislative amendment including the measures has yet
to be passed by parliament and requires a two-thirds majority,
the statement said, adding that it was due to be debated in the
lower house on Thursday. All parties except the far-right
Freedom Party had supported it in committee, it said. 
    The paper industry, which includes packaging maker
Mayr-Melnhof  MMKV.VI , and steelmakers such as Voestalpine
 VOES.VI  are among Austria's biggest industrial users of
natural gas and those that could be hit hardest in the event of
a shortage.

 (Reporting by Francois Murphy and Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich;
editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
 ((francois.murphy@thomsonreuters.com; +43 1 2530 165 010;))