The head of the Austrian oil, gas and chemical group OMVAlfred Stern, proposes a nationalization of the company’s gas trading subsidiary before. “OMV cannot cover the whole of Austria and has no supply mandate,” said Stern in a previously published interview with the daily newspaper “Kurier”, as reported by the Reuters news agency. “This requires a national gas trading company that bundles all market activities.” A good basis for this would be the trading subsidiary OMV Gas Marketing & Trading (OGMT).
The gas trading business was for the partially state-owned OMV ultimately a losing trade. In the first three quarters, the division, which is known as Gas Marketing Western Europe, posted an operating loss before special items of EUR 223 million. The long-term contracts also run through the gas trading subsidiary with Russia’s Gazprom.
Whether the state should also adopt these agreements is a question of design, Stern said. Supply contracts would contain claims and obligations, the Gazprom contracts are “a special issue”.
One could give to the republic which holds 31.5 percent via the state holding company ÖBAG, but not the gas trading subsidiary. “It has to be processed properly,” says Stern. On behalf of the Ministry of Finance, ÖBAG is currently examining how the security of supply in Austria can be secured independently of Russia.