Hungary's MOL Aims to Increase Output, Become More Profitable

By Veronika Gulyas

BUDAPEST--MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU), Hungary's largest oil and gas firm by assets and market share aims to gradually increase output and wants to become more profitable by 2014.

The company, active in central Europe as well as Africa and Asia, is to raise output to 110,000-120,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day from an expected 110,000 boe a day in 2013, it said late Thursday. In the third quarter of 2012, MOL reported an average output of 112,000 boe a day.

MOL said it intends to further increase this to 170,000-180,000 boe a day in 2017-2020.

The company estimates its full resource potential--not pricing in the risk of any events that could affect output--at 1.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Within the company's downstream segment--which includes refining and sales--MOL said it is set to improve its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, by $500 million-$550 million by 2014; at the of 2011 it was $3 billion.

MOL kept its capital expenditure target intact for the coming three years at $2 billion annually, and said it would keep its net-debt position around 30%. The company saw its net-debt position at a five-year low of 24.4% at the end of the third quarter; Jozsef Simola, MOL's chief financial officer said this showed the company's preparedness for more difficult conditions ahead, due to its lower indebtedness.

In mid-morning trading in Budapest, MOL shares were was trading down 1.7%, or HUF310, at HUF18,000 apiece.

Write to Veronika Gulyas at [e-mail]

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