The gas prices may remain high in the winter of 2021-2022 in Europe, because the gas storage facilities are not full, the former head of the Austrian OMV Rainer Seele told TASS a few days ahead of his resignation, Trend reports.
"We will go into the next gas year with a relatively low level of gas in storage facilities, so this winter I would bet on high gas prices, and I think they will remain that way," he said. Seele said that record level of gas prices even in summer was due to the abnormally low temperatures at the beginning of 2021 "First, we had an unusually told winter. Even in April and May, temperatures were at their lowest for the last 30-40 years, which is why the current volumes of gas in storage facilities are less than in the previous years. We had one less month to fill up the storage facilities, " Seele said. Companies that operating gas storage facilities purchase relatively small volumes of gas because the prices are so high, Seele said.
In the future, Seele says, gas prices will also depend heavily on the weather. "If the cold weather comes early, then we can expect high prices. If the weather is mild, the gas prices will even out and go back to a lower level," he said.
Rainer Seele was the head of OMV since 2015, but resigned from the company on September 1, 2021. He gave an interview to TASS several day ahead of his resignation.