OREANDA-NEWS. A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Rainer Seele, Chairman of the Executive Board of OMV, took place in St. Petersburg today.

The parties addressed the ongoing and future cooperation, noting that after its record-breaking year for Russian gas consumption in 2017, Austria continued to show dynamic growth in the gas demand. According to preliminary data, from January 1 through April 8, 2018, Gazprom had supplied Austria with 3.7 billion cubic meters of gas, a rise of 77.2 per cent compared to the same period of last year.

Particular attention was paid to the high reliability of gas supplies, including during the peak cold period in Europe between late February and early March, when only Gazprom was able to promptly increase deliveries and provide consumers with the required volumes of gas.

The parties also discussed the progress of the Nord Stream 2 project. At present, work is underway on obtaining the permits for the construction and operation of the gas pipeline.

In 2017, Gazprom set a new record for gas exports to Austria at 9.1 billion cubic meters, a rise of 50.3 per cent (3 billion cubic meters) from 2016 (6.1 billion cubic meters) and 33.7 per cent (2.3 billion cubic meters) from 2005, when the previous record had been reached (6.8 billion cubic meters).

OMV is Gazprom’s main partner in Austria. The companies cooperate in gas production, transportation and supplies.

Nord Stream 2 is the construction project for a gas pipeline with the annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea.