Rohöl-Aufsuchungs Aktiengesellschaft

51.2333333333336.7727777777778Koordinaten: 51 ° 14 '0 "N, 6 ° 46' 22" E

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• Markus Egger Mitter, Director General
• Peter Layr, Chairman

The crude oil prospecting Aktiengesellschaft (RAG ) is the oldest existing in Austria company in the field of oil exploration, gas exploration, natural gas and oil production. The shareholders of the RAG are EVN ( 50.025 %), E.ON Ruhrgas ( 29.975 %), the Styrian gas heat GmbH ( 10%) and Salzburg AG (10 %):

In 2008, the funding amount in Austria was approximately 104,000 tons of oil and 320 million cubic meters of natural gas, which corresponds to 12 and 21% of Austria's total production; in addition there are holes in Bavaria. An underground gas storage RAG with Haidach and Puchkirchen the largest capacities in Central Europe, about 40 % of the Austrian requirements provided in the gas crisis in 2008. They were doubled by 2011 from 2 to 4 Bcf and supplemented in subsequent years by further storage in the region of Salzburg / Austria.

History

The company was as crude oil extraction AG by the Socony - Vacuum Oil, Inc. (now Exxon Mobil Corporation ) (now Royal Dutch Shell), founded in 1935 and the Petroleum Maatschappij NVde Bataafsche 1937 succeeded the first major oil discovery with the probe RAG II about two kilometers north of Zistersdorf. The company secured the 1936 and 1937 with 7000 free mining rights for most of the Vienna Basin.

When, after the State Treaty in 1956, which emerged from the Soviet Oil Management ÖMV began to dominate in eastern Austria, the RAG gradually shifted the focus of their promotion to Upper Austria.

Zisterdorfer oilfield and Soviet occupation

In 1938, with the development of the oil field Gaiselberg that oil discovery, which made the town Zistersdorf the epitome of the oil wealth of the Vienna Basin. The oil- bearing strata of the field Gaiselberg, just located one kilometers southwest of Zistersdorf, extending over an area of ​​only 2.5 square kilometers, but there exist along a geological fracture ( the so-called Steinberg break) a number of oil leading layers one above the other, the depth of 800 m to nearly 2,400 m ranges.

In the time of the "Anschluss " of Austria by Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945, RAG was as " enemy property " by a German asset managers continued. In the 1945-1955 period following the Soviet occupation of eastern Austria, despite de facto decision in 1946 was no nationalization of the RAG, but the majority of the drilling was spent as spoils of war in the USSR and the entire promotion had to be handed over to the Soviet petroleum administration. This was also a limitation of the mining rights in the Vienna Basin to the two existing before 1945 oil fields RAG / Gösting and Gaiselberg where it remained even after withdrawal of the Soviet occupation force in 1955.

However, the RAG was awarded in 1948 and 1951 by the Geological Survey research contracts in the former U.S. occupation zone in Upper Austria. With a new deep drilling of the first major oil discovery in Austria outside of Vienna basin was made in May in 1956 Puchkirchen. The result of years were rather sobering. Only in Ried a more significant oil field was discovered in 1959.

Concessions in Upper Austria

In 1960, an extension of the concession area of RAG in Upper Austria in the area south of Wels. Already In 1962, the discovery of the previously prolific Austrian oil field outside of the Vienna Basin, in Voitsdorf in the town of Ried im Traunkreis. The field extends east - west direction for about 10 km and was opened on 43 wells, of which 10 were still used to promote 2007. The north - south extension is only slightly more than a kilometer. From the two leading in 2100 to 2200 m deep -lying oil horizons more than 3 million tons of oil have so far been recovered.

( 2012, a probe active approximately 150,000 tons ), Oberau stable (about 200,000 tons; ; Eberstalzell (previous oil production about 500,000 tons of 2012 3 probes active), Narrow Field 2012: In the vicinity of the field Voitsdorf to 1980, another major oil fields were developed 1 probe active), Sattledt (about 1 million tons, 2012 6 probes active) and Steinhaus ( approximately 200,000 tonnes, 2012, a special active).

1968 was achieved in the company's history with 419 118 tonnes of crude oil, the highest annual output, of which more than half came from the Voitsdorf field. After that, the oil production was declining and in 2005 reached its preliminary low with only 75 275 tonnes. Since then, production increased by the discovery of large deposits in this village west of Wartberg an der Krems and in Bad Hall and Sierning in 2011 123.704 tons (15 % of Austria's oil production ) that which 104 204 tonnes from the foothills of the Alps in Upper Austria and 19,500 tons from the two fields in Zistersdorf came.

Overall, approximately 50 oil and gas fields have been developed by RAG in Austria. As a result of higher oil prices in Austria are relatively expensive development of oil deposits in recent years has intensified again. This led after 2000 to several major oil discoveries in the eastern concession area around the spa town of Bad Hall.

Natural gas production

In the 1970s, the development of natural gas deposits gained a greater significance. Especially in the western Upper Austria is approximately 15 km on both sides of a line of Kremsmuenster to Burghausen a variety of medium and smaller reserves of natural gas was discovered, most of which are at depths from 500 m to 1500 m. 1977, the largest annual production was achieved with almost 880 million cubic meters of natural gas. 2012 was the annual output 272 million cubic meters of natural gas ( about 17 % of Austria's natural gas production ).

The RAG also uses more of its natural gas deposits as underground storage. The gas field Puchkirchen at Timelkam was gradually expanded to an underground gas storage from 1982. After extensions 1995 and 2002 capacity is currently around 860 million cubic meters of natural gas. By 2010, the capacity was about 20 km north of the existing memory increased to 1.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas, including the gas field Hague at the house jerk.

In May 2007, went on Straßwalchen Haidach in operation. After an expansion in 2011 and with a capacity of about 2.6 billion Kubikmeteren natural gas, equivalent to a third of Austria's annual needs, he is currently the second largest natural gas storage facility in Western Europe.

With the " Seven Fields " project other former gas fields to be adapted for use as underground storage. 2011 was the commissioning of the storage Zagling at Straßwalchen and nut village with a total of around 1.2 billion cubic meters. 2011 was the start of construction for the memory Oberkling / Pfaffstätt southwest of Mattighofen.

In 2014 a further gas storage, the 7Fields was put into operation, so that the storage capacity could be increased by 14%. An increase was decided at the same time.