LNG

Italian natural gas network operator Snam, one of Europe’s leading energy infrastructure companies, said the volumes of gas injected into Italy’s network in the first half totalled 35.71 billion cubic metres, down 10.3 percent from the same period in 2019 because of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Nov 22 (LNGJ) - OMV AG of Austria, the energy and utility company, plans to cooperate on LNG with Gazprom after the Russian natural gas giant increased deliveries of pipeline gas to the Austrians for a fifth straight year. For the period from January 1 to November 21, 2019, Gazprom delivered 12.7 billion cubic metres to Austria, which was 2.8 percent more than in all of 2018 when deliveries came to 12.3Bcm.

OMV is one of the five European corporate investors in the Nord Steam II project, the second Baltic pipeline from Russian to Germany and then onwards to other European Union nations carrying 55 Bcm of pipeline gas per annum. The latest Austrian gas delivery details emerged at a meeting in St Petersburg between Alexey Miller, Chairman of Gazprom, and OMV Chief Executive Rainer Seele.

“Special attention was paid to the implementation of the Nord Stream II project,” said a Gazprom statement on the talks. “Furthermore, potential cooperation in the LNG segment under the Memorandum of Understanding first signed in June 2019, was also discussed at the meeting,” it added. OMV along with France’s Engie, Royal Dutch Shell and Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall signed an agreement with Gazprom to provide financing for 50 percent of the total 9.5 billion euros ($10.5Bln) cost of Nord Steam II.

Austrian oil and gas company OMV has entered the LNG market by securing a preliminary multi-year sales agreement with the trading subsidiary of Cheniere Energy, owner of the Sabine Pass export plant in Louisiana and of a second project being developed at the port of Corpus Christi in Texas.

Oct 12 (LNGJ) - The Austrian river port of Vienna is one of the largest on the Danube River and will be the subject of growing LNG fuel use for barges, even as Austria remains dependent on Russian pipeline natural gas. Gazprom Chairman Alexey Miller has visited Austria for talks with Chancellor Christian Kern in Vienna and it was noted that Austrian gas imports from Russia rose 11.5 percent in 2015 and from January through October 2016, Russian gas supplies to Austria totalled 4.18 billion cubic metres, 23.8 percent higher than in the same period of 2015.