OREANDA-NEWS. Austria and the oil and gas company OMV have accepted the terms of payment for Russian gas under a new scheme - through an account with Gazprombank, where euros will be converted into rubles, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said at a press conference. According to him, quoted by TASS, the Austrian side came to the conclusion that the new payment scheme does not contradict the sanctions measures.

We, that is OMV, have accepted the terms of payment, as has the German government. They [the conditions] were found to be consistent with the conditions of the sanctions. It was important to us,” he said.

Nehammer said in April that Austria was 80% dependent on Russian gas. According to him, the country's leadership is already trying to find a solution in order to refuse energy resources from Russia. He also noted that Austria will be able to become independent of Russian oil supplies only in a few years, since at this stage it is impossible to do so.

On April 11, in Russia, in Novo-Ogaryovo, a meeting was held between Nehammer and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Nehammer, in an interview with Austrian media, said that during the meeting, Putin assured him of the stability of Russian gas supplies, as well as the possibility of paying in euros. The chancellor added that in the event of an embargo on Russian gas, Austrian industry and households in the country would suffer serious damage.

At the end of March, Putin signed a decree on the transfer of payments for gas into rubles with "unfriendly countries." Poland and Bulgaria refused to switch to a new payment scheme, which is why Gazprom stopped supplying gas to these countries.