Rising gas prices, 20 percent occupancy in Hungary
After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the sanctions imposed as a result of the war, they stabilized in the natural gas markets at around 100 euros / MWh in April, with cheap price fluctuations, the Hungarian Energy and Utilities Regulatory Authority (MEKH) said in its April natural gas market analysis.
MEKH said that independence from Russian gas could cause protracted gas market shortages in European markets, resulting in longer prices rising. The biggest increase in the price of the product in 2024.
From April 28 to the end of the month, the Yamal pipeline was shut down, traffic on the Turkish Stream was also declining, and the North Stream was still stable. Despite declining Russian supplies, Europe imported the same amount of gas in April as before. The declining Russian resources were offset by a smaller increase in Norwegian fixed line imports and a larger increase in LNG imports. However, in order to attract LNG resources to Europe, a surcharge of EUR 10-26 / MWh has to be paid compared to the Far Eastern markets.
Domestic gas consumption in April was excellent compared to 12 last year. The weather-adjusted decline was 8 percent, partly due to high prices, but the maintenance of gas-fired power plants also played a significant role. Hungary’s natural gas demand in April was covered by 89% of imports and 11% by domestic production.
The storage period began in April. With fewer than 14 commercial sources available in April last year, the pace of entry was slightly lower than the previous year. Mainly as a result of declining shipments, the increase related to the previous month in the size of available resources. The storage facilities thus closed the first month of the storage period with a stock level of around 14 TWh, which corresponds to a filling level of 20%.