Baumgarten Fire Hits Russian Flows, 1 Dead, 21 Injured
An update to this story was published December 13 at 11.50am GMT here; the original December 12 story follows.
Austrian gas transmission operator GasConnectAustria (GCA) reported an explosion at the Baumgarten hub shortly before 9 am local time, which led to a serious fire. It has since said one person died and 21 wounded, one seriously.
The hub is an important transit point for Russian gas supplies in Italy, as the entry point to the 30bn m³/yr 'TAG' pipeline, as well as to Austria itself and its Balkan neighbours. Austrian OMV, which controls GCA, said: "The GCA Baumgarten gas distribution station is one of central Europe’s most important gas hubs. Following the incident, the facility has been shut down on safety grounds and the authorities have started their investigations. Gas supply in Austria is currently secure."
Gazprom Export, a major shipper at Baumgarten, said December 12 it is aware of the incident and "doing its best to secure uninterrupted gas supplies to clients on this transport direction."
GCA added later in the morning: "The explosion caused a serious fire that has been contained to several small fires. It is with great sadness that we have to announce that one person lost their life in this accident.... The exact circumstances of the accident still remain unclear and are being investigated by the police. The company is doing everything possible to help with these investigations." It conveyed its sympathy to the victims and families.
GCA added that the plant has been shut down and is offline. "The cause of the accident remains unclear; we are currently assuming it was a technical fault. The country’s natural gas supply can be covered for the foreseeable future. Transit through Austria to the south and southeast regions will be hindered until further notice. The neighboring pipeline operators were informed immediately, so that measures can be introduced in a timely manner. Natural gas supply is secure. As soon as we know more, we will share the information."
German broadcaster Deutsche Welle said the explosion occurred at 8.45am (7.45am GMT), noting that gas prices in the region had increased and supplies to southern Europe tightened.
Central European Gas Hub (CEGH), which operates exchange based Baumgarten gas hub trading, said December 12: "Due to a severe breakdown/accident in the Austrian gas pipeline system, gas flows in the Austrian market area east (import and export) are stopped/ heavily affected." It added that nominations to its Virtual Trading Point and trading on the PEGAS CEGH Gas Market are still possible, adding however: "As this is an extraordinary situation, we ask you to keep your operational staff permanently available."
Day-ahead at Baumgarten was reported by CEGH as having traded as high as €25.15/MWh gas ($8.68/mn Btu) for delivery on December 13, up from prices a day ago for December 12 of 21.255, so about 18%. More recent day-ahead trades at Baumgarten for December 13 delivery though had eased to €24.50/MWh
Trans-Austria Gasleitung (TAG), 84.47%-owned by Snam, which operates a pipeline from Slovakia to Italy via the Baumgarten hub, and also operates facilities at Baumgarten itself, said: "Our knowledge at this point is that no facilities of TAG GmbH are affected. As soon as we know more, we will release more information."
Upstream of Baumgarten, the operator of the Slovak system, Eustream, said that a technical failure in the Austrian gas transmission system meant that gas transmission at Baumgarten was temporarily limited to the actual capacity of the Austrian system. The other interconnection points of Eustream are not affected and available for gas transmission without limitation, it said.
GCA is 51% owned by Austrian oil and gas firm OMV, 49% by a joint venture; the latter is 60% owned by German fund manager Allianz and 40% by Italian gas grid operator Snam.
TAG map showing how pipelines radiate in, and out, from the Baumgarten hub in eastern Austria