CORRECT: MOL Hopes For Hungary Tight Gas Production To Start In 2015

Hungarian oil and gas company MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU) is hopeful that its local unconventional natural gas venture will result in production by 2015.

However, there are many hindering factors, which include the unexplored geological conditions and lack of necessary technology, the company's managing director of Eurasian exploration & production, Attila Holoda, said Thursday at a conference organized by business daily Napi Gazdasag.

Holoda pointed out that MOL's unconventional exploration project in the southeastern region of Hungary, long known by geologists to contain an unspecified but substantial amount of carbon hydrogens is about to take a major step forward.

"We are planning a major fracking operation this year," he said, referring to the rock layer fracturing procedure used to access gas that is found at great depths.

Holoda stressed that although Hungary hasn't been able to achieve any major successes in unconventional drilling to date, its professionals have amassed a great deal of expertise in the field.

"Poland, where they have great hopes riding on unconventional gas, is five to eight years behind us, which is why they're coming to us for help," he said.

-By Gergo Racz, Dow Jones Newswires, [phone]; [e-mail]