Auction Announcement Notice – 2022/1.

Hungarian Gas Storage Ltd (hereinafter referred to as HGS) on this day announces an auction for using gas loan service for the period between 01.09.2023- 01.09.2024. The auction is carried out by HGS in line with the Storage Capacity Auction Regulation II/B document as per Annex No. 1.

Auction Details:

The Auction can be accessed via HGS’ IT Platform, following an early registration (https://nom.mfgt.hu/SMCS.html).

Registration

At the capacity auction, bids can be made by only those capacity bidders that are eligible for storage access, and whose documents submitted during the registration process for storage year 2022/2023 were accepted.

Documents required for registration:

• Original certificate of incorporation not older than 30 days in case of business organisations registered in Hungary and abroad, and its translated copy in Hungarian or in English (certified translation is not required in case of companies registered in Hungary, the online version by the Hungarian Ministry of Justice is accepted –  http://www.e-cegjegyzek.hu/ ) in case of business organisations registered abroad.

• “the original copy of the „IT Platform (SMCS) Registration Datasheet and Power of Attorney” (Annex No. 5.3 of the HGS Code of Business Conduct: Storage Capacity Auction Regulation II/B, Annex No. 1) (Annex No. 3.)

• In case of business organisations registered in Hungary: copy of the notarised specimen signature(s) or sample signature(s) countersigned by an attorney-at-law of the authorised signatory (signatories) signing the “IT Platform (SMCS) Registration Datasheet and Power of Attorney”.

• In case of business organisations registered abroad:

•    copy and translated English or Hungarian copy of the notarised specimen signature(s) or sample signature(s) countersigned by an attorney-at-law of the authorised signatory (signatories) signing the “IT Platform (SMCS) Registration Datasheet and Power of Attorney”;

•     or the original copy of their sample signature signed in manuscript in the presence of two witnesses (Annex No. 5), and a copy of the signed side of a personal document belonging to the signatories (by mail or e-mail).

Participation in the capacity auction shall be conditional on the full and complete submission of the documents required for registration as specified above for the acceptance of the registration by HGS, which can take place by mail or by email, however, in the latter case, the original documents shall also be submitted prior to bidding, in the absence of which the registration is rendered invalid, and thus the bid cannot be evaluated. Participant is obliged to inform HGS of any changes to the content of the documents subsequent to their submission.

Furthermore, in order to participate in the capacity auction, the listed documents shall be delivered until the registration deadline specified for this auction. Although registrations received after the deadline specified in the registration process may be accepted, they only qualify the capacity bidder to submit bids on subsequent auctions announced in storage year 2022/2023, as they shall be considered as void in terms of this auction.

HGS reserves the right to request deficiency correction from the participant – if any formal or substantive deficiency or other non-conformity (e.g.: delay) is detected during the specific review of the documents submitted –, and the participant may not have valid registration for the auction unless such deficiency correction is performed within the deadline – set forth by HGS.

In case of a valid registration, HGS confirms the fact of registration to the Bidder by e-mail.

During registration, HGS shall be obliged to treat data submitted to the auction in a confidential manner and will not disclose them to any third party.

Service offered, Gas Loan:

Borrower shall take over in the unified storage facility the total Gas Quantity awarded at the auction by the end of gas day 01 September 2023 at the earliest, which it shall return no later than

1. between the gas days of 01 September 2023 and 31 August 2024 as chosen by the Borrower

2. but until the end of the gas day of 31 August 2024 being the latest date, or

3. until the end of the gas day specified in the Notification if Mandatory Return is required, return it.

A precondition for the service shall be the acceptance that after lending, upon notification from the Hungarian Energy and Public Utility Regulatory Authority (HEPURA) or upon a ministerial decree pursuant to Section 141/G (3) of the Gas Act (hereinafter referred to as Mandatory Return), the total Gas Quantity borrowed shall be replaced (injected) within the deadline specified in the notification sent by HGS.

Fee of Gas Loan Service offered:

    Service Fee includes:

• the fee payable by the Borrower (loan fee) for the period from making the Natural Gas Lent available to the Borrower until the return thereof + VAT. 

    Service Fee excludes:

• the working gas capacity fee related to the Gas Quantity Lent,

• withdrawal and injection capacity fees related to the withdrawal and injection of the natural Gas Quantity,

• volume fees related to the withdrawal and injection of the natural Gas Quantity.

     Extent of Service Fee:

          shall be determined by the product of the quantity request (kWh) submitted at the auction and the bid price offered for the full term of the loan (HUF/kWh).  

In the event that the return takes place prior to the gas day of 31 August 2024, HGS will not make any refund from the loan fee.

Neither primary, nor secondary trading of the Gas Loan product is possible.

Payment Conditions:

The invoice on the Loan Fee is issued following the Gas Loan Contract takes effect, with a payment deadline being the 15^th day from issuing the invoice. The total loan fee shall be invoiced by HGS in advance to the borrower. Paying the total loan fee shall be the condition for crediting the Gas Quantity on the borrower’s gas balance sheet on 1 September 2023 at the earliest.

Volume and other product fees related to the Gas Loan shall be invoiced according to the monthly routine.

Collateral:

To guarantee the return of the Natural Gas Lent, Borrower shall provide – at its own discretion – bank guarantee or injected gas guarantee or a combination of these two collaterals to HGS.

Further details shall be contained in the contract template attached to the Offer.

Final Provisions:

Awarded bidders shall be notified by HGS following the evaluation until 14:00 hours on 25 July 2022.

Following the auction, HGS and the successful Bidder of the relevant Gas Quantity shall conclude the contract template “Contract on Lending and Borrowing Natural Gas” (Annex No. 4) on the awarded units within 5 business days from the auction.

Auctioneer (HGS) explicitly reserves the right to withdraw without explanation the open storage electronic gas loan Auction announced as Gas Loan Auction No. 2022/1 until the announcement of its results.

In the event that the Auction is withdrawn, Auctioneer will not compensate for any damage or cost incurred by the bidders.

By participating in the auction, Bidders shall accept that due to existing storage bookings, HGS will not provide Express Service with regard to the quantities awarded at this capacity auction.

Should you have any further questions or require information in relation to the auction, please consult the designated contact persons of HGS: Hajnalka Horváth (Phone: +36 30 748 9971, e-mail: horvathh@mfgt.hu and Dóra Tóth (Phone: +36 20 236 1972, e-mail: tothd@mfgt.hu), sales specialists.

Annexes:

1. Storage Capacity Auction Regulation II/B

2. Electronic Auction System Guide

3. IT Platform (SMCS) Registration Datasheet and Power of Attorney

4. Contract on Lending and Borrowing Natural Gas - Contract Template

5. Sample signature

Budapest, 11 July 2022