Flammable situation

Ukraine stopped delivering gas to Hungary on January 6, at 3.25pm. The gas usage of the industrial consumers was already limited and households might be affected within a couple of weeks.


hould weather conditions remain unchanged and provided Ukraine does not resume delivering in the next three weeks, household consumption may need to be restricted on top of the limitations already applied to industrial consumers, according to the summit meeting of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on January 7.
The Hungarian Energy Office defines the order in which gas consumption is limited, classifying the consumers into five main groups. The first category consists of the largest industrial consumers using as much as 2500 cubic meters per hour or more. The gas usage of these was limited on Tuesday evening, January 6, followed by the second group on Wednesday morning. The second category includes those industrial consumers using between 500 and 2500 cubic meters per hour. Shortly before our deadline the limitation was lifted from the second group as improvement of the situation is expected from the January 9 meeting of the representatives of Ukraine and Russia in Brussels. According to Csaba Molnár, Energy Minister, the restriction can be re-imposed if the situation changes again.
By implementing the above measures the gas consumption of the country was already reduced to 64 million cubic meters from 68 million. Households fall into the last, fifth category, and are not currently endangered, alongside some protected community institutions also in this group. The gas supply of bakeries is also ensured.
Due to current events the National Council for the Reconciliation of Interests (NCRI) decided that Saturday, January 10 will not be a working day. January 10 was to be a working day instead of January 2, which was a given holiday. NCRI said that Saturday, March 28 is when the lost working day will be compensated.
However, many Hungarian companies are already affected by these restrictions. The Suzuki factory in Esztergom, brick and tile producers Tondach Hungary Zrt and Wienerberger Zrt, cartire producer Hankook, bus manufacturing Kühne, the Nagyatád tread factory in and the wheel factory in Tatabánya all had to halt their productions and several other companies needed to cut down their output too. Most of the factories are able to switch to alternative energy supplies, those who cannot must decrease their gas consumption below 500 cubic meters per hour or else their gas supplies are cut off.
Two Hungarian gas-fired power plants switched to using oil. Shopping centers and hypermarkets are discussing decreasing their heating levels as well. A long ongoing gas crisis can have catastrophic effects on industry, said Katalin Pál, leading analyst of GKI Economic Research Co. The global crisis had already put tremendous stress on the Hungarian economy, she added. According to Pál, limiting the gas usage of the third group would mean that almost the entire Hungarian industrial production has to be halted.
Hungary has the third or fourth largest gas storage capacity in Europe, said Ferenc Gyurcsány, PM. The stored gas should be enough to supply households until spring, however, industry needs gas too, he added. The Prime Minister requested the 500 million cubic meters strategic gas supplies to be made available in order to avoid supply shortages. At the meeting of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee representatives of Mol and E.ON, the two main gas suppliers of Hungary were present too.
Mol will raise its own gas production to 9 million cubic meters from 8 million per day, said Zsolt Hernádi, chairman of Mol. Although, the question is not that whether Hungary has enough gas stored but whether it will be able to access all of it, he said. According to Hernádi fewer than 4 million cubic meters can be used daily due to technical limitations. “The system, the production and the pipelines will operate with 100% capacity for only two or, maximum, three weeks; after that, as the gas is drawn, the pressure decreases and within a short time, even if we have sufficient quantity, we will not be able to access it,” he pointed out asking the household consumers to be more conscious about their gas usage. A drop of one degree Celsius boosts daily consumption by about two million cubic meters, Hernádi added.
E.ON can supply daily 51 million cubic meters of gas from its storage facilities and can continue providing this amount for weeks or months, said András Tóth, Regulating Manager of E.ON. This amount should be sufficient to supply households, he added.
Altogether, 16 European countries are affected by the Russian-Ukrainian gas disputes as state-owned Russian Gasprom has cut off all gas supplies going through Ukrainian pipelines. Gas deliveries had been completely cut towards Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia as well as towards Poland and Turkey, but the latter two receive increased amounts through different pipelines. France, Germany, Italy and Serbia have also reported a drastic decrease in Russian gas supplies. Dusan Bajatovic, Chairman of the Serbian state-owned gas provider Srbijagas traveled to Hungary to discuss whether Serbia can borrow gas. Serbia has approximately 1 million cubic meters of gas, out of which 500 thousand is its own production and the same amount in available in a storage facilities, and it is not enough to operate the system. Some of the heating centers are already shut down and many household are currently without heating.


GAS FACTS

- The Hungarian yearly gas consumption is approximately 4 billion cubic meters.

- The average daily consumption of the country is 68 million cubic meters that can go up to 80 million on the coldest winter days.

- A drop of one degree Celsius boosts daily consumption by about two
million cubic meters. The yearly gas production of Hungary from its own sources is approximately 2.5 billion cubic meters.

- The gas reserves hold 3 billion cubic meters and the separate strategic gas reserve is 500 million cubic meters.



LIMITATIONS

I. Category limitation:
(2500 cubic meters per hour consumption). The power plants, the aluminum, the steel and the cement industries belong in this group. That part of the gas supply of these plants is counted in this group that can be switched to oil without endangering the electricity supplies of households.

II. Category limitation:
(500-2500 cubic meters per hour).
Oil refineries, the chemical, the machine and the clothing industry along with logistic companies, agricultural and meat processing plants, brick and tile producer companies belong to this group. The Ferihegy Airport also falls into this category but it switched to using oil already.

III. Category limitation:
Large consumers in the industrial, agricultural and trading fields fall here, who are not counted in the first two categories.

VI. Category limitation:
Public services fall in this category, such as public transport companies, MÁV, BKV, the police and the Parliament as well.

V. Category:
Apart from households, hospitals, schools, and heating providers belong in this category.





Pictured: Worker Zoltán Huczka prepares for the reception of natural gas transported by train at the Hort plant of Prímagáz Zrt.
(Photo: MTI)

Judit Lengyel

15.01.2009