The two countries are preparing for the event that Russia decides to no longer honor the gas contracts of customers who refuse to pay their bills in rubles, as demanded by the Kremlin in response to Western sanctions.

Vienna and Berlin on Wednesday triggered the first level of an emergency plan which has three.

This is for Austria to "guarantee a rapid reaction" in the event of a stoppage of deliveries, according to Chancellor Karl Nehammer.

In Germany, a "crisis unit" is now in place, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said at a press conference.

However "the security of supply" is at this stage guaranteed in Germany where the gas reserves are filled to 25%, he specified, insisting on the "preventive" nature of the activated device.

In Austria, the stock level is at 13% of capacity.

"Gas and oil are currently arriving in accordance with orders", detailed Mr. Habeck.

Priority hospitals

At the first level of the so-called "early warning" plan, gas suppliers and gas pipeline operators are "required to regularly assess the situation" and inform the government, said Berlin.

But the state does not intervene yet.

It is only at the third level that the public authorities would take measures to "regulate" the distribution.

Businesses may experience rationing.

Exceptional status is provided for households and certain essential players (public services, hospitals, etc.) whose supply, particularly for heating, is guaranteed.

Italy has been on a "pre-alert" since February 27 regarding gas supplies, a measure allowing "permanent monitoring of the national energy situation", according to the government.

Rome does not currently plan to move to the next stage, that of “alert”, indicated the AGI agency, citing government sources.

France is also preparing for possible targeted gas cuts at major consumers in the event of a stoppage of the Russian flow and a draft decree aims to organize this load shedding.

Thursday, the Central Bank and the Russian government, as well as the company Gazprom, must present the new system of payment in rubles.

Wanting to be reassuring, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that this transition to payment in Russian currency would be done gradually and would not come into full effect this week.

Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that payment in rubles should not disadvantage European buyers of Russian gas.

The G7 countries and the EU have described the Russian president's request as unacceptable.

"We are not going to accept breach of delivery contracts," Habeck reiterated on Wednesday.

Failure to comply with this requirement runs the risk of a unilateral interruption of gas supplies, the scenario that Europe, dependent on Russian hydrocarbons, has been trying to avoid at all costs since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German dependency

Berlin, which supplied more than 55% from Russia before the war, has already reduced this share to 40% and is stepping up its efforts to find other suppliers.

But Germany does not envisage being able to do without Russian gas before mid-2024 and is firmly opposed to the immediate embargo on hydrocarbons requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and several countries such as Poland.

In the absence of an embargo, Warsaw on Wednesday asked the European Union to introduce a tax on imports of Russian gas, oil and coal, which would penalize Moscow customers.

Renouncing deliveries of gas or oil from Russia "overnight" would amount to "plunging our country and all of Europe into recession", warned Olaf Scholz.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck at a press conference on March 28, 2022 Tobias SCHWARZ AFP

“Hundreds of thousands of jobs would be threatened. Entire industrial sectors would be in difficulty,” he warned.

To prepare for next winter, a law passed on Friday by the German parliament obliges gas suppliers to gradually fill their tanks up to 90% by December.

© 2022 AFP