"If the current cold spell does not let up and Russian gas flow via Ukraine is not restored, Hungary can guarantee full natural gas supply for households for no more than a few weeks, said Zsolt Hernádi, Chairman-CEO of fuels group MOL in Parliament on Wednesday.The government has freed up strategic natural gas reserves of 500 million cubic metres, which means gas the system controller has free and unlimited access to it, InfoRádió has reported on Wednesday.
Gas transmission company FGSZ chief executive János Zsuga said the access ensures additional 3.6 million cubic metres of natural gas.
Daily consumption in Hungary is around 68 mcm. The company estimated today's consumption at 64 mcm, as the usage of industrial consumers has been restricted.
Underground storage facilities may provide 51 mcm a day at most and MOL's own production is 9 mcm a day.
MOL's Chairman-CEO Zsolt Hernádi stressed that less than 4 mcm worth of natural gas may be extracted from strategic reserves a day, due to technical limitations.
He added that the system operator may run the storage facilities on 100% capacity up to two or three weeks only. (The more is extracted the smaller the pressure will be.)
Experts estimate that if the cold weather remains and gas does not start to be delivered again via Ukraine, household consumption will need to be limited, as well withing four to five weeks.
A drop of one degree Celsius boosts daily consumption by about two million cubic metres, Hernádi said."
Source: Portfolio Online Financial Journal
08.01.2009