Pressemitteilungen

BUDAPEST, 18 March 2020 - MOL Group’s wholly owned subsidiary MOL Norge AS and its joint venture partners have discovered oil and gas in an offshore field located about 200km west of Stavanger in the Norwegian part of the North Sea.

The exploration well in the 820S licence area was drilled to a maximum depth of 2,652 meters below sea level and oil and gas were found in a number of formations and were successfully tested for about 3,463 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The potential resources discovered in the main formation are between 12 and 71 million barrels of oil and gas equivalent.

The commerciality of the discovery will be determined later, following additional technical work.

MOL Norge AS with 40% working interest is the operator of the 820S license on behalf of partners Lundin Norway AS (40%), Wintershall Dea Norge AS (10%) and Pandion Energy AS (10%).

MOL Group entered Norway in 2015, through the acquisition of 100 percent ownership of Ithaca Petroleum Norge. The drilling program began in 2018, after the operator achieved readiness in record time without any setbacks in a highly regulated environment.

MOL Group’s exploration portfolio in Norway is aimed at supporting delivery of organic reserve replacement for the Group.

About MOL Group
MOL Group is an integrated, international oil and gas company, headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. It is active in over 40 countries with a dynamic international workforce of 25,000 people and a track record of more than 100 years in the industry. MOL’s exploration and production activities are supported by more than 75 years’ experience in the hydrocarbon field. At the moment, there are production activities in 8 countries and exploration assets in 13 countries. MOL Group operates three refineries and two petrochemicals plants under integrated supply chain management in Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia, and owns a network of about 1900 service stations across 10 countries in Central & South Eastern Europe.

Press contact:
@: internationalpress@mol.hu

• Full-year 2019 EBITDA reached USD 2.44bn, above the upgraded guidance, despite most macro drivers turning negative in Q4, but decreasing 9% compared to last year
• Upstream production increased in Q4 and full-year production reached 111mboepd, exceeding our 110mboepd guidance level for 2019; EBITDA was 17% lower than in 2018, primarily due to the weaker external price environment
• Downstream CCS EBITDA decreased by 13% to USD 866mn, reflecting lower refining and petchem margins
• Consumer Services EBITDA rose by 30% in local currency terms and by 24% in USD in Q4 2019, and increased 18% in 2019
• Assuming 6 months contribution from the ACG assets in Azerbaijan, MOL Group expects to generate around USD 2.5bn Clean CCS EBITDA in 2020

Budapest, 21 February 2020 – Today, MOL Group announced its financial results for 2019. Despite the much challenging and volatile external environment at the end of the year, MOL Group generated USD 598mn Clean CCS EBITDA in Q4, bringing full-year Clean CCS EBITDA to USD 2.44bn, above the recently upgraded guidance. Simplified free cash flow declined compared to 2018 as the company is pushing forward with its strategic transformational projects, but remained positive in 2019 at USD 356mn.

Upstream production increased sequentially in Q4 and remained broadly unchanged in full-year 2019 at 111 mboepd, slightly above the guidance level. Due to the lower oil and gas prices, this volume generated 17% lower EBITDA compared to the 2018 results. Exploration and Production remained the key cash generator of MOL Group, providing a massive, nearly USD 700mn simplified free cash flow in 2019. In Upstream, MOL’s target for 2020 is twofold: to successfully complete the acquisition and to integrate the ACG assets that will add about 20,000 bpd to production; at the same time, the segment will continue to maximise value and cash flow generation of the existing assets through an efficient operation.

Downstream full year 2019 Clean CCS EBITDA dropped by 13% to USD 866mn, fully reflecting the weaker macro environment. In Q4 Clean CCS EBITDA declined to USD 191mn 21% lower compared to the last year’s fourth quarter as both refining and petchem margins were weaker at the end of last year, however refining margins were recovering in January-February 2020. Motor fuel demand growth remained very strong in the region in 2019, meaning a 3.4% increase that supported the Downstream segment.

The polyol project is on schedule and on budget; major construction site works boosted up in 2019 and the overall project completion is now at around 50%.
A final investment decision was made for the Rijeka Refinery Residue Upgrade project, aiming at turning INA’s Downstream into a sustainable and profitable business. The project includes the construction of a delayed coker with an expected commissioning in 2023.

Consumer Services was the “star performer” in 2019, EBITDA of the segment increased by 30% in Q4 2019 year-on- year in local currency terms (24% in USD), capped another strong year with double-digit earnings growth. The segment achieved several important milestones, including the non-fuel margin generation reaching 30% of the total margin by the end of the year. Accelerated non-fuel concept rollout continued: the number of reconstructed sites with Fresh Corners rose to 877 from 687 a year ago.

The Gas Midstream segment reached USD 71mn EBITDA in Q4, 48% higher than a year ago, as capacity demand rose significantly due to the uncertainty of Russia-Ukraine transit agreement. Operating expenses declined by more than 10% as fuel gas consumption and network loss decreased and so did the price of natural gas.

Chairman-CEO Zsolt Hernádi commented the results:

“We delivered robust financial results in 2019, even slightly ahead of our upgraded EBITDA guidance despite a weaker external environment.

We also achieved important milestones along our 2030 transformation journey. We agreed to acquire major upstream assets in Azerbaijan, we have reached 50% completion at our flagship polyol project, while our Consumer Services business had another record-breaking year.

With our strong foundations and despite increasing global uncertainties, we look forward to 2020 with optimism. With the help of the new assets, we expect to grow our EBITDA to around USD 2.5bn, based on our mid-term base macro framework with a Brent crude price of around USD 60/bbl and assuming a more conservative petchem outlook. This shall again provide us enough cash flow to cover our investments into our strategic projects.”

About MOL Group

MOL Group is an integrated, international oil and gas company, headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. It is active in over 40 countries with a dynamic international workforce of 25,000 people and a track record of more than 100 years in the industry. MOL’s exploration and production activities are supported by more than 75 years’ experience in the hydrocarbon field. At the moment, there are production activities in 8 countries and exploration assets in 13 countries. MOL Group operates four refineries and two petrochemicals plants under integrated supply chain management in Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia, and owns a network of 2,000 service stations across 10 countries in Central & South Eastern Europe.

Press contact

@: internationalpress@mol.hu