RusEnergy

Oct. 02, 2006 Kommersant - Austria has become the first E.U. state, where Gazprom has applied new procedures for shipping the gas. This move will allow the monopoly to maintain 60 percent in the gas consumption in Austria without breaching the cartels laws there.
Vice Chairman of Gazprom Management Committee Alexander Medvedev, OMV CEO Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer, OMV Gas General Director Werner Auli, EconGas Managing Director Michael Peisser, GWH Managing Director Christoph Hiller and Centrex Europe Energy & Gas General Director John Skinner sealed the contracts in Vienna past Friday for shipping to Austria 7 billion cu meters of gas till 2027.
So far, the gas of Russia accounted for 59 percent of consumption in Austria. OMV was buying all gas on border to deliver it to the gas distribution companies or the end users. The situation will change July 1, 2007. Starting from this day, such practice of the company will incur big penalties for breaching cartels laws in force on the liberalized market of the European Union.
For OMV, the Friday contracts gave the chance to split the business. It will proceed with deliveries, while the sale will be the concern of EconGas (OMV holds 50 percent, and the remainder is shared by some independent companies of Europe), Centrex Europe Energy & Gas (Gazprombank owns 100 percent) and Russia’s-Austrian GWH (OMV owns 25.1 percent, Gazexport has 50 percent and Centrex holds 24.9 percent).