12 August 2008
E.ON Földgáz Storage Zrt, Hungary's only natural gas storage facility provider yesterday held the second national storage capacity auction. Three companies participated the auction and fourty million cubic metres of storage capacity were offered. The auction was supervised by the Hungarian Energy Office and eight packages, five million cubic metres each, were offered in several rounds to the participants. The final price reached more than the double of the regulatory price taken as up-set price.
As default, E.ON Földgáz Storage arranges for the annual capacity reservations through negotiations with the Hungarian gas distributors and competitive traders before the start of each gas year. This second auction was organised due to the excess capacities resulting from the new feeding technology now applied by E.ON Földgáz Storage. Several traders reported interest concerning such excess capacities so E.ON Földgáz Storage auctioned these storage capacities totalling fourty million cubic metres in concert with the prevailing regulatory provisions. The first storage capacity auction in Hungary was recently held by the company for the same reason. At this first auction, thirty million cubic metres were auctioned.
Last year, E.ON Földgáz expanded its natural gas storage facility in Zsana by two-hundred million cubic metres. The surplus is currently taken by the National Hydrocarbon Storage Association (Magyar Szénhidrogénkészletezési Szövetség, MSZKSZ) as strategic reserves. E.ON Földgáz Storage has launched a project for an additional expansion by six-hundred million cubic metres and the project will be completed by Autumn 2009. Following the expansions, E.ON Földgáz will hold a total storage capacity of 4.3 billion cubic metres that is a substantial increase compared to the total storage capacity of 3.4 million cubic metres as of the date of the acquisition of the company. Today, E.ON Földgáz Storage has eleven domestic accounts and has the ambition to expand primarily outside Hungary and to become a regional player in the natural gas storage market.