MOL To Spend Up To $2 Billion Capex Annually 2012-2014 - CEO

Hungarian oil and gas firm MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU) is planning its capital expenditure, or capex, at up to $2 billion annually between 2012 and 2014, the group's chief executive said Friday.

Capex last year amounted to 274 billion forints ($1.3 billion), 18% below the 2010 value.

The group, which published fourth quarter results before markets opened Friday, plans to cover investments solely from cash flow, CEO Jozsef Molnar told journalists.

The company plans to spend more than 50% of this amount on its upstream-segment, and around 25% on its downstream segment.

Key organic growth projects in the period within the upstream segment include the Akri-Bijeel and Shaikan blocks in the Kurdistan region of Iraq; Russia's Baitex and Matjushkinsky blocks; Kazakhstan's Federovsky block; Hungarian exploration and field development; and Croatian exploration and field development.

Within the downstream segment, the company will invest in a modernization project at its Slovakian subsidiary Slovnaft a.s. (SLN.BS); residue processing in its Rijeka refinery in Croatia; and logistic and retail development.

Investments in the 2011 the upstream segment focused on the central and Eastern European region, Russia, the Kurdistan region of Iraq. In the downstream segment, the company spent on the revamping a thermal power plant in the Bratislava refinery in Slovakia, and finalizing the modernization of the Rijeka refinery.

-By Veronika Gulyas, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]