Most Austria-Hungary capacity sold in RBP annual auctions

Natural gas shippers in Hungary booked 70% of available unbundled entry capacity from Austria, through the country’s inaugural annual auctions hosted by the RBP booking portal on Monday.

The annual delivery period actually covers the 15 months from 1 July, so that by October 2016 Hungary’s gas calendar is synchronised with those of its neighbours and is compliant with EU regulation.

Counterparties booked 2.7GWh/hour of the 3.8GWh/hour of available annual capacity in the auction. The capacity sold at the quoted reserve price of Hungarian forint (Ft) 1,549/kWh/hour.

On 17 April, Hungarian transmission system operator FGSZ announced that all capacity at its border points would be auctioned on the RBP (see ESGM 20 April 2015). The RBP is an alternative to the pan-European PRISMA platform which was developed in order to comply with the EU’s network code on capacity allocation.

This was the first time that annual capacity at Mosonmagyarovar was auctioned on the RBP. The platform’s initial monthly auction was held for the Csanadpalota border point with Romania on 10 December 2014, but no capacity was sold either then, or in subsequent auctions.

Auctions for unbundled entry capacity from Ukraine and Romania and exit capacity to Croatia, Serbia and Romania also took place on Monday. Shippers booked 911MWh/hour of entry capacity from Ukraine, around 5% of the total available, at the quoted reserve price of Ft1,549/kWh/hour.

Those buying entry capacity from Romania booked 1MWh/hour, representing 1% of offered capacity, at Ft746/kWh/year.

There was no interest in exit capacity to Serbia, Romania or Croatia. amy.booth@icis.com