Austria says refusal from Russian gas makes no sense
Austrian politician Grosz: Vienna’s refusal from Russian gas will take years and there is no sense in it
Austria’s rejection of gas from Russia will take years and there is little sense in it as Russian gas continues to flow into the republic, only at times higher prices and via other routes, former Austrian presidential candidate, politician and publicist Gerald Grosz said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
“Austria’s economy and industry have been guided by cheap Russian gas for more than five decades. A switch would take years and a lot of taxpayers’ money. Besides, it makes little sense to do without cheap Russian gas and to get the same gas from other countries at four times the price. Everyone has made sure that Russian gas comes to us at a higher cost and through other countries. Whether a citizen is ready to sacrifice his savings for the sake of a fraud with moral labels – I doubt it,” he said.
As the outgoing CEO of the Austrian energy concern Energie AG, Werner Steineker, stated last December, the share of gas from Russia in Austria’s imports is up to 50% and all the talk about the dependence on Russian “blue gold” being reduced to 20% is untrue.
Earlier, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and his government ministers have repeatedly stated that Russian gas supplies to the republic have been reduced to “around 20 per cent”. The Austrian Energy Ministry told RIA Novosti the figures were taken from a report by the national regulator E-Control last October. The ministry specified that the data on Russian gas deliveries to the republic are in the “fluctuation range” because gas market players are not obliged to inform E-Control of the exact source of the imported gas.
In January, more recent E-Control statistics became available, according to which the share of Russian gas supplies to Austria in November last year was 41 percent.
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