Austrian oil and gas company OMV, which supports anti-Russian sanctions, including the freezing of Russian assets, expressed disagreement with Russia’s retaliatory measures.
The company called the transfer of its stake in the joint venture with Gazprom an “expropriation,” according to OMV’s quarterly report.
At the end of 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees according to which the stakes of Germany’s Wintershall and Austria’s OMV in joint ventures with Gazprom will be sold to new Russian owners.
These are the Achim deposits of the Urengoy field (Wintershall has stakes in three joint ventures – Achimgaz, Achim Development and Achim Sales) and the Yuzhno-Russkoye field (Wintershall owns 35 per cent in Severneftegazprom and OMV 25 per cent). At the same time, the existing joint ventures will be replaced by new structures with Gazprom retaining its stake in them. The Austrian company said in a statement:
“This decree amounts to a unilateral and irreversible expropriation by taking over OMV’s interests at the expense of compensation, which will ultimately be largely determined by Russia and transferred to accounts under Russian control. OMV is reviewing the current facts and further developments and is considering steps to protect its rights.”
Meanwhile, OMV chief executive Alfred Stern told a press conference that the company had received all the gas volumes promised under the contract in Austria from Gazprom last year. He stated:
“That was not the case in 2022, but it was in 2023.”
Austria has frozen nearly 2 billion euros worth of Russian financial assets as part of the sanctions, Austrian Finance Minister Magnus Brunner said in April 2023.
Western countries have among other things frozen about half of Russia’s foreign currency reserves – about $300 billion – as part of anti-Russian sanctions. About 200 billion euros of them are in the EU, mainly on the accounts of the international depository Euroclear.
