Management of the Hungarian Energy Office - Magyar Energia Hivatal

The Gas Act allows the issuance of new licenses for one-stopshop
capacity selling. The demand of enhancing the security of
supply makes it necessary to build a new transmission pipeline
crossing several countries. The new license specifi ed in the
Gas Act aims to facilitate the management of the applications
for the construction of international pipelines operating on the
basis of one-stop-shop principle by the adequate modifi cation
of the regulatory environment. The one-stop-shop principle
ensures signifi cant comfort for shippers and traders because
they have to contact and contract with only one company
independently from how many countries they wish to cross
with their transport.
HEO has not yet issued a one-stop-shop capacity selling
license in 2009, but it has in its resolution obliged the investor
and future operator of the NABUCCO pipeline – NABUCCO
Gas Pipeline International GmbH – to apply for the license in
the future.
Allocation of cross-border capacities and congestion
management
Capacities of cross-border interconnection points are the
following:
• Western entry point – Mosonmagyaróvár: 13.1 million m 3 /day
• Eastern entry point - Beregdaróc: 42 million m 3 /day (until
30 June 2009), then 72 million m 3 /day (from 1 July)
Gas turnover of the cross-border interconnection points:
• Mosonmagyaróvár: 5.7 million m 3 /day import gas on
average, for domestic use;
• Beregdaróc: 21 million m 3 /day import gas for domestic
use + 12 million m 3 /day transit towards Serbia and Bosnia
and Herzegovina.
The major part of cross-border capacities have been allocated
by long term contracts.
Long term natural gas import contracts and their duration:
Panrusgas 9000 million m3 /year until 2015
E.On Ruhrgas 500 million m3 /year until 2015
Bothli Trade AG 900 million m3 /year until 2014
Gaz de France 600 million m3 /year until 2012
annual report 2009
The long term transit contract concluded with Serbia, which
includes a 12 million m 3 /day continuously contracted pipeline
capacity, will expire in 2012. There are contracted congestions
on the Eastern, Beregdaróc cross-border point. By 1 July 2009,
the new pipeline development project of the transmission
licensee had been fi nished, which had practically doubled the
import capacity from the Eastern direction. In the course of
the construction works in 2008, a new pipeline of 1000 mm
diameter from Beregdaróc to the compressor station was
built, which extends the Eastern entry capacity by 30 million
m 3 /day. In addition to the dissolution of the aforementioned
congestions, the primary aim of the pipeline is to ensure the
possibility of fi lling up the strategic natural gas storage being
built in Szőreg-I level of the Algyő gas fi eld. As a result of
another development of the transmission licensee FGSZ Földgázszállító
Zrt., another pipeline was built in 2009 towards
Romania. The Hungarian side of the Szeged-Arad pipeline is
already completed; it will feature a 700-mm-diameter pipeline
with a two-directional gas transmission capacity of 12.1
million m 3 /day.
Regulation of the responsibilities of transmission and
distribution companies
The high-pressure transmission pipeline system is operated
by a single company (FGSZ Földgázszállító Zrt.). FGSZ
has two operational licenses issued by HEO: a natural gas
transmission license and a system operation license. The
Gas Act defi nes the general rules on natural gas transmission
activities, and lists in details the conditions of issuing a license
annual report 2009 | 31