Baumgarten an der March (Croatian: ''Pangort na Moravi'') is a small subdivision of the municipality of

Weiden an der March Weiden an der March is a municipality in the district of Gänserndorf in Lower Austria, Austria. Geography Weiden an der March lies in the Weinviertel in Lower Austria. It lies near the river Morava (german: March), which forms the border with S ...

Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. It has only 192 inhabitants.

Significance for the energy sector

Baumgarten has an important role in the European energy sector. The Baumgarten gas distribution centre developed from the central production facility of the spent Zwerndorf gas field, and came online in 1959. The first gas shipment from Russia was received in 1968. Over the past few decades, Baumgarten has become one of Europe's most important gas distribution stations. Every year around 40 billion cubic metres of gas are distributed from the Baumgarten gas station to Eastern Austria and to Western, Southern and South-Eastern Europe. Baumgarten an der March - Erdgasstation (b)

Baumgarten an der March - Erdgasstation (b)

The gas reception facilities run by

Gas Connect Austria Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...

and by TAG GmbH, the operator of the

Trans Austria Gasleitung The Trans Austria Gas (TAG) pipeline is a natural gas pipeline that leads from the Slovak-Austrian border at Baumgarten an der March to Arnoldstein in the south, near the border with Italy. Natural gas originating from Russia is transported to an ...

(TAG) pipeline, are located on an 18 hectare (ha) site. The facilities include equipment like filter separators, gas dryer units, several compressor units (some of them electric), gas coolers and metering sections. Incoming gas deliveries are compressed and then pumped into the West-Austria-Gasleitung (WAG) and TAG pipelines. Part of the gas is also transported to Hungary via the

Hungaria Austria Gasleitung Hungaria or Hungária may refer to: *Latin for Hungary, a European country **For historical entities (from 895) see: Hungary (disambiguation) * Lady of Hungaria, the national personification of Hungary * ''Hungaria'' (Liszt), a symphonic poem by F ...

(HAG). Gas reserves are stored in the underground facilities in Tallesbrunn and Schönkirchen, both of which are depleted gas fields. Imported gas is pumped into these storage plants. There are also underground storage facilities in Thann and Puchkirchen in Upper Austria, and in Haidach bei Strasswalchen on the border between Salzburg and Upper Austria. The storage facilities in Puchkirchen and Haidach are operated by

Rohöl-Aufsuchungs Aktiengesellschaft RAG Austria AG (RAG) is the largest gas storage operator and thus energy storage company in Austria. The company focuses its business activities on the storage of natural gas and other gaseous energy and the development of green-gas technologies ...

(RAG). The total volume of gas at Austria's storage plants is sufficient to cover the annual consumption of Austria.

2017 explosion

On 12 December 2017, an explosion on the premises of the gas distribution center left one person dead and 21 injured. The blast cut off supplies from the hub to southern Europe for a short period, prompting

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

to declare a state of emergency.

References

Natural gas trading hubs Economy of Austria Populated places in Lower Austria 2017 in Austria {{LowerAustria-geo-stub