Hungarian system operator FGSZ will auction 11.7 GWh/d of interruptible import capacity in January through the Hungary-Austria pipeline (Hag) on 11 December.
Applications for capacity must be submitted to FGSZ by 16:00 CET on 10 December by letter or fax.
Auctions for interruptible capacity along this route were heavily oversubscribed in much of the second half of the year because of high injection demand in Hungary from July onwards.
But the Hungarian injection campaign ended on 25 November and there was less interest in last month's auction for December interruptible capacity.
A January restart to Hungarian exports to Ukraine could support demand for capacity on the link.
FGSZ halted interruptible Hungarian exports to Ukraine on 25 September, saying that it could not provide reverse flow capacity and accept increased Russian imports to fill storage.
But Hungary's Russian imports slowed on 5-6 December to 158.5 GWh/d from 235 GWh/d on 1 November-4 December. Russian deliveries on 5-6 December were lower than before reverse flow capacity to Ukraine was suspended.
Even if Hungarian exports to Ukraine resume, demand for Hag capacity may be limited by a new interconnector with Slovakia that is due to start commercial operations in January.
Despite Slovak prompt prices being at a premium to the Austrian VTP, the Slovak route's lower transit costs could make it a cheaper source of supply, traders said.
Test capacity on the Slovak interconnector was offered from the beginning of December, although the 56.6 GWh/d of import capacity was still not available as of 3 December because of problems on the Hungarian side, Eustream said.
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