A major Hungary-based international oil company joins the North Sea oil and gas sector today with the launch of MOL Oil in Aberdeen.
The event is being hosted by MOL Group Exploration and Production Executive Alexander Dodds, with Hungarian ambassador Peter Szabadhegy included among the VIP guests.
As the offshore oilfields mature – making it more difficult and more expensive to recover oil assets from the seabed, long-established operators are disposing of platform assets to new market players.
One of the key challenges in this region is to attract new players, global investment and stimulate activity as the last 10 years have seen a major decline in production and production efficiency as well as increased costs.
At the end of March, MOL Group closed a ‘milestone’ deal with Wintershall to acquire offshore assets with 14 licences in the North Sea.
Announcing the group’s annual results last week, MOL Chairman Zsolt Hernádi said: “We recently concluded our the North Sea transaction and are ready to start our work on our new portfolio, which will contribute to Group results by the second quarter.”
Based in Budapest, MOL employs 29,000 people and operates in 40 countries worldwide. It now owns oil platforms in eight countries – including Scotland/ UK – and is exploring for new fields in 13 countries. MOL operates four refineries and two petro-chemical plants, as well as 1,700 service stations in central and southern Europe.