MOL Magyar Olaj- és Gázipari Nyrt.
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| MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas Public Limited Company | |
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| Type | Joint stock company |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Headquarters | Budapest, Hungary |
| Key people | Zsolt Hernádi, CEO György Mosonyi, GCEO |
| Industry | Oil and gas |
| Products | Oil, natural gas, petrochemicals |
| Profit | ▲ HUF329.5 billion (2006) |
| Website | www.molgroup.hu/en |
MOL Magyar Olaj- és Gázipari Nyrt. (MOL Nyrt., in English: Hungarian Oil and Gas Public Limited Company), an oil and gas exploration and distribution group, is Hungary's largest company by sales volume.
The company operates over 800 gas stations in 7 CEE countries. MOL Rt. is a Joint stock company traded at the Budapest Stock Exchange and at the Warsaw Stock Exchange, making up almost a fifth of the stock index BUX. "Nyrt." stands for "Nyilvánosan Működő Részvénytársaság", which means "public joint stock company" in English.
MOL was founded in 1991 by combining various elements of the state-run petroleum sector in Hungary. It bought Slovakia's national refiner Slovnaft in 2000, and Hungary's leading producer of ethylene and polypropylene, TVK, in 2001. Together with its upstream oil and gas business in Hungary, this made it one of the region's largest integrated oil and gas companies. It further strengthened this position with the foundation of a 50-50% joint venture to operate the Zapadno-Malobalyk oil field in Russia with Yukos (which was later replaced by RussNeft), and the purchase of a 25% strategic stake in Croatia's national oil company INA[1]. MOL's Russian upstream portfolio has been expanded with the acquisition of Baituganskoe Oilfield, Surgut-7 block and Matjushkinsky block in 2006-2007.
The MOL group's refineries at Százhalombatta, Hungary and Bratislava, Slovakia, are among the most profitable in Europe, thanks to the company's investments in residuals processing technologies. These allow maximum use to be made of the high-sulfur Urals blend oil the company uses, from Russia. In traditional refineries, a relatively high amount of fuel oil, a product with lower complexity and lower value, is produced using Urals blend. The residuals processing technology allows fuel oil to be almost entirely eliminated from the product mix, meaning more profitable gasoline and diesel fuel can be produced.
MOL has an aggressive growth strategy for the years 2006-2010, which focuses on rapid growth in upstream hydrocarbon exploration and production. MOL's income before taxes in 2005 was approximately 277.2 billion HUF, or about 1.1 billion USD.
The company is also eager to increase its strategic stake in INA to a majority, but it awaits the decision of the Croatian government to carry out further steps in INA's privatization. In 2006 INA and MOL launched a joint exploration project in the Slatina (Cro) - Zaláta (Hu) area designed to secure new volumes of natural gas. The two companies are now forming a consortium in Bosnia and Herzegovina, after winning the recapitalisation tender for Energopetrol, the leading petrol company of Bosnia and Herzegovina,[2] where they got an absolute majority by helding 67% of the shares. The reaming 23% is divided between the federal government of B&H (22%), and several minor shareholders (1%).
On 23 July 2007, a spokesman for MOL signaled that MOL could reconsider merging with Poland's PKN Orlen. It was seen as a reaction to the attempt of hostile takeover by Austria's OMV.[3] On 1 August 2007, MOL announced the acquisition of Italiana Energia e Servici (IES), owner of the Mantova refinery and chain of 165 retail stations in Italy.[4]
On 20 September 2007 MOL criticised OMV's advertisement in which the Austrian oil company suggests the two work together on the European market. The Hungarian company thinks that is misleading, unethical and asked OMV to remove the name MOL from those advertisements[5].
On 18 January 2008, MOL signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian ONGC[citation needed]. In the Memorandum of Understanding MOL and ONGC have laid down the basis of a broader cooperation in exploration and production projects in India and elsewhere, as well as in the field of technology transfer and professionals exchange.
After selling 7 percent of its shares to Czech power utility CEZ in December of 2007, on 10 March 2008 MOL announced the sale of an 8 percent stake to the Oman Oil Company[6].
In 2008 it was ranked 525 in the Forbes Global 2000 list of companies
[edit] References
- ^ World Business Briefing. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-02-12.
- ^ Consortium MOL/INA signed contract with the Government of FBiH for Energopetrol's recapitalization
- ^ "MOL Signals Readiness to Revisit PKN Orlen Merger Talks", Downstream Today, 2007-07-23. Retrieved on 2007-07-27.
- ^ "MOL Plans Capacity Increase at Newly Acquired Italian Refinery", Downstream Today, 2007-08-01. Retrieved on 2007-08-03.
- ^ MOL thinks OMV advertisement is unethical
- ^ Hungary's oil firm MOL sells 8 pct. stake to Oman, seen as step to thwart takeover by OMV. International Herald Tribune. Retrieved on 2008-03-12.
[edit] External links
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