!!!Erdgas
Natural Gas: consists, with some variability, of light hydrocarbons
(methane, ethane, propane, butane), CO<SUB>2</SUB>, H<SUB>2</SUB>S and
N<SUB>2</SUB>. The first discovery of natural gas in Austria occurred
on the area of the Vienna East Railway Station in 1844, followed in
1892 by finds near Wels.
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Natural gas, which has been declared state property, is won in
petroleum areas in the form of "wet gas" (i.e. diluted in petroleum)
or from pure natural gas deposits in the form of "dry gas. Systematic
utilisation of natural gas did not start until 1955, when the Austrian
government took charge of petroleum production ( OMV AG).
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The most important natural gas fields are situated in the Vienna Basin
( molasse zone): Matzen, Zwerndorf, Hoeflein, and also at Puchkirchen,
Pfaffstaett, Friedburg and Atzbach in Upper Austria. In 1999 natural
gas was extracted from 660 locations. The Hoeflein deposit
(2700-3000 m below ground) was the first commercially utilisable
natural gas deposit situated below the Alps.
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Particular significance attaches to the gas deposits in the Alpine
limestone strata in the subsoil of the Vienna Basin. In the course of
exploration of the geologically complex "floors" of the Vienna Basin,
a large gas deposit (1,3 Mio. m%%sup 3/%/day) was discovered at a
depth of 7544 m at the Zistersdorf UeT 1a well, but extraction
proved impossible. The Zistersdorf UeT 2a well, which was drilled
in the immediate vicinity and reached a depth of 8553 m on
May 31, 1983 (deepest hydrocarbon drillhole in Europe), failed to
establish the exact location of the deposit.
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In Austria the Trans-Austria-Gas pipeline (TAG, from Baumgarten an der
March, Lower Austria, to Arnoldstein, Carinthia) and the
West-Austria-Gas pipeline (WAG, from Baumgarten an der March to the
environs of Passau, Gemany) form part of the European gas pipeline
network. Since 1968 these pipelines have not only served for transit
shipments of Russian natural gas but have also carried gas to meet
domestic demand.
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Natural gas is partly stored in exhausted underground deposits at a
depth of between 500 and 2,000 m. The chief locations are Matzen,
Puchkirchen, Tallesbrunn, Schoenkirchen-Reyersdorf, Thann and
Zwerndorf.
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Natural gas reserves ("proved and probably extractable")
amounted to 20.3 billion m%%sup 3/% in1997. Natural gas
consumption in Austria increased from 4.4 billion m%%sup 3/%
per annum in 1980 to more than 7.4 billion m%%sup 3/% in
1997, when approx. 19 % of Austrian demand was met from domestic
sources.
!Literature
F. Brix and O. Schultz (eds.), Erdoel und Erdgas in
Oesterreich, %%sup 2/%1993.
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