By Jason Hovet, Thomas Escritt and Dmitry Zhdannikov
BERLIN/PRAGUE/LONDON (Reuters) – Russian gas flows to Austria were suspended for a second day on Sunday because of a pricing dispute but other buyers in Europe stepped in to snap up unsold volumes, companies and sources said and data showed.
Russia, which before the Ukraine war was the biggest single supplier of gas to Europe, has lost most of its buyers on the continent as the EU tries to cut its dependence on Russian energy.
Russian gas is still being sold in significant volumes to Slovakia and Hungary, as well as to the Czech Republic which does not have a direct contract, while smaller volumes are going to Italy and Serbia.
Gazprom on Saturday halted supplies to OMV after the Austrian company threatened to impound some of the Russian state firm’s gas as a compensation for an arbitration it had won over a contractual dispute.
Flows to Austria were still suspended on Sunday but the overall daily supply via Ukraine – the main transit route for Russian gas to the EU – would remain at 42.4 mcm, Gazprom confirmed without commenting further, roughly the same volume as for every other day over the past year.
Austria had been receiving 17 mcm before the cut off and those volumes are now finding new buyers in Europe.
Slovak state-owned firm SPP said it was still receiving gas from Russia and suggested others were buying more because there was still “great interest” in Russian gas in Europe.
A source familiar with Russian gas supplies in Europe said Russian gas was still cheaper than many other sources and hence Austrian volumes had been quickly resold.
He declined to name the companies which bought gas previously destined for Austria.
Austria has said it has plentiful gas stocks to cover the shortfall and may import in the future via Italy or Germany.
LAST DAYS
At its peak, Russia was supplying 35% of Europe’s gas but since the Ukraine war started in 2022 Gazprom has lost market share to Norway, the United States and Qatar.
The company’s remaining flows to Europe may not continue for much longer with the Soviet-era pipeline via Ukraine due to shut at the end of this year as Kyiv does not want to extend a transit agreement.
The Yamal-Europe pipeline via Belarus has already closed after a dispute, while Russia blamed the United States and Britain for explosions under the Baltic Sea that closed the Nord Stream route.
Washington and London have denied they blew up the pipelines. The Wall Street Journal has reported Ukrainian officials were behind the attack. Kyiv has denied that.
If Ukraine closes the gas transit route, significant Russian supplies will only go to Hungary, which gets most of its volumes via a pipeline running mostly through Turkey.
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt in Berlin, Jason Hovet in Prague and Dmitry Zhdannikov in London; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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