Olivér Horta: Hungary will be able to meet its gas needs
The energy price increases affect all countries that have far less available gas, Olivér Hortay, business manager of the energy and climate policy business of Századvég Konjunktúrakutató Zrt., said in the M1 Ma reggel program in connection with the energy crisis affecting Europe. According to the expert, the next question for Germany will not be the price of gas, but whether it will be at all. Hungary, on the other hand, has the flexibility to ensure the full extent of its gas needs.
More and more cities are saving energy, in Kosovo they decided to switch off the electricity periodically
The worsening energy crisis is forcing more and more countries to introduce restrictive measures. Most recently, the idea of periodic power outages came up in Kosovo, according to the idea, consumers should expect two hours of outages after six hours of power supply.
In the end, the measure was not implemented because Kosovo managed to buy electricity from Albania in the meantime.
According to Vér Hortay, the entire European Union is in big trouble from the point of view of the continuous increase in energy prices, considering that the economy was closely connected, so the price increase affects all countries without exception.
According to the expert, the other question is which country will be in more trouble in the near future.
The next, even more serious problem will no longer be about prices, but about the amount of available gas, i.e. the question will not be how much gas costs, but whether it will be available at all.
From this point of view, Germany is perhaps in the worst situation, which is mainly due to the decrease in gas deliveries from Russia. As a result, a minimum share of German gas requirements is currently available.
Due to the increasingly developing problems, the demand for the use of nuclear energy has increased again in Germany, and according to the expert, it is conceivable that the country’s nuclear power plants will not be shut down in view of the current situation.
Olivér Hortay: A chaotic situation is emerging in Europe
According to the expert, it can be said that it is a fortunate situation that the stoppage of crude oil transport occurred just during the maintenance of the domestic oil refinery.
Olivér Hortay emphasized that another key issue of the energy situation is the availability of gas reservoirs, as well as their charge level.
At the moment, there are sharp differences in the filling status of state-owned and privately-owned reservoirs, the latter of which are obviously not in a place justified by an emergency due to the high price environment. All this is especially true for storage facilities belonging to Gazprom’s interests.
This halved capacity state has led to the nationalization of storage facilities in several countries, for example in the Czech Republic, where recently private storage facilities were ordered to be taken over by the state. All this was done in Germany already in the spring.
Olivér Hortay pointed out: the price of gas on the leading Dutch gas exchange reached 250 euros/megawatt hour, this price hovered around 20 euros a year and a half or two years ago, so it is no exaggeration to claim that a drastic increase took place that no one expected.
“At the moment, there are no signs that the government will have to resort to supply restrictions at home – stated the Századvég expert, adding that the filling level of gas reservoirs in Hungary currently covers 34 percent of the annual consumption, which is ahead of the European average of 20 percent.
In addition to the long-term contract, 700 million cubic meters of gas will arrive from Russia in the next few days. It is also good news that domestic gas production may increase from January.
“For the time being, it seems that Hungary has the pillars that can meet the gas demands”
said Oliver Hortay.
However, it is no longer possible to place gas from other countries at all: many members either do not have sufficient storage capacity or cannot procure enough gas. Supply restrictions are to be expected in these countries.
Gas tax to be introduced in Germany: heating in winter will be even more expensive for Germans than previously expected
A gas tax of around 2.5 euro cents per kilowatt hour, i.e. almost HUF 10, will be introduced in Germany from October 1, but difficult times are coming in the United Kingdom as well.