For months, the FPÖ in Lower Austria has been advocating the use of gas reserves in the Weinviertel – including through fracking. Now that Ukraine has announced that it will stop sending Russian natural gas to the West from 2025, FPÖ club president Reinhard Teufel is renewing this demand. “The FPÖ NÖ sees national natural gas production as an opportunity to once again guarantee affordable and, above all, independent energy for its own population,” says Teufel. Anything that helps make us more independent from foreign energy supplies will be welcome.
He underlines that many families in Lower Austria still depend on gas. The national economy and industry also urgently need sufficient energy to avoid falling into a competitive disadvantage. “Furthermore, it would be madness to leave the newly discovered gas deposits in the ground, as the Neos, the Greens and the SPÖ would demand,” criticized Teufel. Refers to the gas discovery in Wittau, district of Groß-Enzersdorf (district of Gänserndorf). At the end of July, OMV announced the largest gas discovery in the last 40 years. If Teufel gets what he wants, this should be used instead of building more wind turbines and even more photovoltaic systems.
According to OMV, recoverable resources are estimated at 48 terawatt hours, which corresponds to around 28 million barrels of oil equivalent. “The Green Environment Minister and the ÖVP Chancellor can often accompany their liquid gas tankers from Dubai to come close to achieving this figure,” said Teufel, calling on the black-green federal government to pursue its “climate luck ” in Wittau.