"Under the concluded contracts, Gazprom will supply about 7 billion cubic meters of gas a year to Austria until 2027," a news release from the energy giant said.

Since the beginning of 2006 Russia has supplied Austria with 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

"In connection with the liberalization of the Austrian gas market and restructuring of OMV AG's activities in the natural gas trade sector, the sides agreed that the purchaser of the Russian natural gas will be EconGas, a 50% owned subsidiary of OMV Gas International, instead of its parent company," the news release said. "GWH and Centrex Europe Energy & Gas AG will be able to effect direct sales of gas on the Austrian market, particularly to consumers in Carinthia, Styria and Salzburg."

Alexander Medvedev, a deputy chairman of Gazprom's management committee, said, "The new contracts with [our] Austrian partners are another example of the successful implementation of Gazprom's strategy on reaching the end consumer on European markets and making Russia's natural gas exports more efficient."

Austria's largest company, OMV, has been the main business partner for the Russian natural gas industry for over 35 years. The state-controlled Austrian industrial holding is the main shareholder of OMV and owns 31.5% of shares. The rest of shares are distributed between International Petroleum Investment Company of Abu Dhabi (17.6%) and private companies (50.9%). OMV was the first Western company to conclude a long-term agreement on purchase of natural gas from the Soviet Union in 1968.