Austria will encourage industry and utilities to use alternative fuels such as crude oil, Austrian Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler said. Austria gets 80% of its natural gas from Russia. And while its electricity is mainly generated by hydropower, the industrial sector and utilities nevertheless use a significant amount of natural gas. Natural gas is commonly used in district heating. “Power plants and industrial companies will be instructed to upgrade their systems for dual operation to the extent technically and economically feasible. This means that plants can run on natural gas as well as other energy sources – in most cases they will it’s crude oil,” Gewessler said at a news conference. The government is working on a draft of the direction it will provide to industry and utilities, but it will need to be signed off by the main committee of the lower house of parliament. The announcement comes as Austria faces a slowdown in the amount of natural gas going into storage. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in late May that Russia would continue to fulfill its commitments to deliver natural gas to Austria. Austria’s OMV opened a ruble account with Gazprombank to pay for Russian gas imports, but gas supplies fell in June by 50 percent after Gazprom said it would reduce the amount of gas supplied. As of Tuesday, Austria OMV said natural gas imports from Russia had recovered to 60% of contracted amounts. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More top reads from Oilprice.com:
