Austria Will Take Common Line with Germany on Gas Storage

According to Süddeutsche Zeitung, the German government wants to quickly tap the Haidach gas storage facility near Salzburg, which is important for supplying Bavaria.

This storage facility was previously only connected to the German gas grid and supplied gas mainly to Bavaria's households and industrial companies, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Haidach is one of the largest underground natural gas storage facilities in Europe. Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler said she expected the first connection at Haidach to the domestic gas grid to be made this year. "The storage facilities are our central safety buffer for the winter," Gewessler stressed, according to ORF. They are currently 50 percent full, she added.

According to ORF, she said it had been decided for some time that the underground storage facility, which was previously only connected to the German pipeline network, should also be connected to the Austrian network as soon as possible. "But that doesn't mean that one country wants to take gas away from the other," said Carola Millgramm, a gas expert at regulator E-Control, according to ORF.

According to ORF, Germany and Austria had recently signed a framework paper during a visit by German Economy Minister Robert Habeck to advance cooperation on energy security.

Currently, most of the Haidach storage facility is empty because it is still under Russian control, according to ORF. However, the process is now underway in Germany and Austria, at the end of which other storage customers will soon be able to fill the storage facility.