Russia’s state-owned natural gas company Gazprom stopped supplies to Austria early Saturday, according to the Vienna-based utility OMV, after OMV said it would stop payments for the gas following an arbitration award.
The official cutoff of supplies before dawn Saturday came after Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Friday held a hastily called news conference to emphasize his country has a secure supply of alternative fuel for this winter.
OMV said it would stop paying for Gazprom gas to its Austrian arm to offset a 230 million-euro ($242 million) arbitration award it won from the International Chamber of Commerce over an earlier cutoff of gas to its German subsidiary.
The Austrian utility said in an email that no gas delivery was made from 6 a.m. on Saturday.
OMV said Wednesday it has sufficient stocks to provide gas to its customers in case of a potential disruption by Gazprom, and said storage in Austria was more than 90% full.
“Once again Putin is using energy as a weapon,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “He is trying to blackmail Austria & Europe by cutting gas supplies. We are prepared for this and ready for the winter.”