An explosion at the site of Austrian OMV’s Baumgarten natural gas hub has interrupted gas transit to Italy, Slovenia and Hungary, the Austrian government’s electricity and gas markets regulator E-Control announced. 

The facility, about 50 kilometres northeast of Vienna, is a key link for Russian natural gas entering Europe accounting for about a tenth of the continent’s supply. In 2014, OMV signed a deal with Gazprom to strengthen Baumgarten’s long-term role in European energy markets.

According to media reports, the blast, which occurred early on December 12, has also affected Croatia and Slovakia. However, the crisis at the hub on the Austria-Slovakia border is likely to be temporarily. 

“Gas prices in Europe increased on the news yesterday, on fears that the disruption to supply was going to be protracted. However, following this update, it is clear to us that there will be no long-term impact on supply or prices across the European market,” WOOD & Company analysts said in a note. 

Meanwhile, the co-head of Austrian gas transportation company Gas Connect Austria, Harald Stindl, told ORF Radio on the morning of December 13 that all transit lines of Austria’s main gas pipeline hub were put back online before midnight after the previous day’s explosion, Reuters reported.

“I can report that we were able to get back online all transit lines yesterday before midnight and that all of these lines are 100% productive,” Stindl said.

Gas Connect Austria said on December 12 that the fire was caused by an incident in the morning, but was completely extinguished during the afternoon. An employee of TUV Austria lost his life in the accident while 21 people were injured. The exact circumstances of the accident are still unclear and are being investigated, E-Control and Gas Connect Austria say.

Italy’s ministry of economic development has declared a state of emergency, according to a December 12 statement, although the ministry also assured gas consumers that any shortfall in imports would be covered by a greater supply of gas from the national underground gas storage facilities.

Besides Italy, the explosion in Austria has also affected neighbouring Slovenia. Its state-owned news agency STA reported on December 12 that the system of supply of natural gas to Slovenia is operating at a limited capacity after the explosion. Distribution of gas is limited, but the authorities are doing everything in their power to prevent any breaks in the supply, according to the agency. 

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