OREANDA-NEWS The Austrian authorities will publish an amendment to the law that will make it possible to deprive Gazprom of its underground natural gas storage in Haidach near Salzburg, the Kurier newspaper reported, according to Gazeta.ru.

The newspaper reports that according to the new version of the law on the gas industry, the country's energy regulator E-Control may transfer the fuel storage facility, which is not used by anyone, to a third party.

It is specified that the transfer is possible in case of "systematic non-use of the facility". Such a facility is considered to be a storage facility which is less than 10% used as of July 1.

Earlier, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said Gazprom would lose control of the storage facility if it did not use it. This week, Nehammer said Israel could supply gas to Austria starting in 2023. According to him, the electricity supply will become significantly more expensive because of the rejection of Russian gas. At the same time, Austria was able to find fuel suppliers. The chancellor did not say from whom the fuel is currently purchased.