A new gas field near Vienna went into production on Monday that could double Austrian domestic gas production.
Opening the project in Wittau due east of the capital, Chancellor Christian Stocker said it was of strategic significance. It will come onstream in the coming winter.
Alfred Stern, chief executive of the OMV oil, gas and chemicals company, said the new gas field did not contradict the aim of decarbonizing the economy. A functioning energy and heat transition demanded reliability and stable intermediate solutions.
According to OMV, the project is the largest gas find in Austria in 40 years. The field at a depth of 5,000 metres contains recoverable resources of around 48 terawatt-hours, or 28 million barrels of oil equivalent.
The find will extend gas recovery in Austria by 15 years, it said.
Austria draws around 7% of its gas consumption from domestic resources. This share could rise initially by 50% with the new gas field.
