Management of the Hungarian Energy Office - Magyar Energia Hivatal

The winners of the auctions may conclude
contracts with ERI under the following terms
and conditions:
• The contracted amount of gas will be
transported in two years, in two equal parts,
through the import entry points – Beregdaróc
80%, Mosonmagyaróvár 20%.
• The supply contracts will provide the same
level of fl exibility as the upstream contracts
of MOL Földgázellátó Rt.
The auctions are carried out by an international
information technology service provider.
E.ON Földgáz Trade Zrt. held its fourth natural gas auction in
March 2009, in accordance with the relevant rules.
The most important one of the provisions of the Gas Act
facilitating competition is the reinforcement of the market
environment; on the basis of that, HEO started its investigation
procedure in 2008 (on 30 October 2008) concerning
signifi cant market power. If the investigation of HEO states
the imperfection of the market competition and the presence
of signifi cant market power, HEO can oblige the affected
licensees to the execution of the obligations defi ned in the
Act. In the course of the procedures of designating licensees
having signifi cant market power and of imposing obligations
on them, HEO cooperates with the Competition Authority, and
takes into consideration its professional opinion.
Retail market
The enforcement decree of the Gas Act separately provides
detailed rules for switching traders, the essence of which is
that the customer or the new natural gas trader charged by
him can abrogate the commercial contract or the public utility
contract – unless agreed in the opposite – by the fi rst day of the
second month following the notifi cation. The customer may
charge the new natural gas trader with arranging the procedure
of trader switching. The notice period cannot be less than 30
days.
A new element of the Gas Act is the revisiting of the gas sales
on gas-days, in the framework of which the Act introduces
and regulates the daily natural gas and capacity trading. The
purpose of this provision is to promote that the transactions
necessary for the daily balance-keeping of the natural gas
system are market-based.
In the retail market there was a signifi cant change in 2009, as
the public utility segment ceased from 1 July, and the public
utility supply was replaced by universal service. In accordance
with Section (1) of Article of the Gas Act, public utility supply
licensees submitted to HEO their applications for universal
service license by 30 November 2008. On the basis of the
applications, HEO issued 9 new licenses for universal service
until 31 January 2009. The majority of household customers
did not switch suppliers, they remained with regional
universal service suppliers. Therefore competition is not yet
annual report 2009
Table 10 Maximum technical capacity of the domestic natural gas system as of
31 December 2009 [million m 3 /day]
Domestic production
Import (Western direction)
Import (Eastern direction)
Commercial gas storage
Security gas storage
TOTAL
o
(* in the case of a -15 C daily average temperature the technical capacity ensures the continuous
gas supply of the country)
prevailing in the retail market, the position of market actors
do not refl ect a competitive situation with regard to the supply
of all consumers groups, but rather refl ects traditional regional
distribution, the situation before market opening.
SECURITY OF SUPPLY
The highest-ever natural gas consumption of the country, 89.5
million m 3 /day, was measured on 9 February 2005. Comparing
that to the above data, it can be seen that the capacity of the
domestic natural gas system is much higher than this value, the
technical background of the security of supply is appropriate.
The new Gas Act defi nes a gradual handling of the disturbances
occurring in the natural gas system. In the case of small
breakdowns, licensees shall take measures by themselves.
In the case of critical situations when the majority of the
customers may be affected by interruption – e.g. in the case of
a signifi cant outage of imports – it is the Government who can
order emergency measures.
Natural Gas Transmission
10.5
13.1
60.0
55.1
20.0
158.7*
From the point of view of security of supply, it is important
that the repair and replacement of the malfunctioning pipeline
sections discovered in 2009 during the pipeline and structure
reconstruction works improving the availability and the
security of the transmission capacity, and during the in-line
intelligent pig inspection was completed.
annual report 2009 | 35