Hungarian monthly: CEEGEX Day-ahead volume hits new high in November

Day-ahead liquidity on the Hungarian CEEGEX exchange reached an all-time high of 394GWh in November due to a narrow spread between the Austrian VTP Day-ahead and the CEEGEX equivalent, prompting shippers to look for supply on the gas bourse rather than importing from Austria.

ICIS collated data showed that imports from Austria through the HAG pipeline dropped by around 2 million cubic metres (mcm) to 11mcm/day on average in November. This was the result of a €0.45/MWh average CEEGEX Day-ahead premium over the VTP counterpart, according to ICIS and CEEGEX price data.

“The narrow spread made importing from Austria less profitable due to tariffs and many market participants likely took only the minimum of their supply contracts,” said a shipper.

Gas consumption in Hungary rose by 13mcm to 39mcm/day on average from October to November, according to ICIS data. In order to meet larger demand, shippers increased storage withdrawals and sold the volumes at CEEGEX as offtake from storage tanks ticked up by 12mcm month on month to 15mcm/day on average in November.

This resulted in larger activity on the CEEGEX spot market as 394GWh of gas changed hands via the day-ahead contract in November, up by 203GWh month on month.

“I think large Hungarian storage stocks will continue to play an important role to meet demand in the [Hungarian] market. As importing becomes more expensive in December and January due to tariffs, storage withdrawals will provide a more feasible alternative to importing. I expect a similar scenario to November in the coming months,” said another shipper.

On 1 November, Hungarian storage units were around 72% full on 1 November, up by 20 percentage points year on year. By the end of the month, storage tanks were at 63% of capacity, 22 percentage points more compared to 2016.

On the balancing platform 56GWh of gas traded as within-day product, down by 34GWh month on month.

Larger exports to Ukraine may have also supported liquidity on the Hungarian MGP market as throughput at the Beregdaroc border point rose by 2mcm to 13mcm/day on average.

Hungarian exports to Serbia through the Kiskundorozsma border point increased by 3mcm to 8mcm/day on average, ICIS data showed. david.simon@icis.com