"Great step"

MOL lays claim to a small deposit in Russia

Despite the failure in the tender for the purchase of Udmurtneft, a former asset of TNK-BP, the Hungarian oil and gas company MOL is trying to gain a foothold in Russia. Yesterday she announced that she had submitted an application for the acquisition of a certain Russian oil-producing asset. MOL does not disclose details. It is only known that the site is located in one of the key oil-producing areas, in close proximity to the main oil pipeline. According to MOL, the field's proven and probable reserves barely reach approximately 60 million barrels. (about 8.5 million tons) of oil. Currently, 1.8 thousand barrels are produced at the site. oil per day, but with further development, as the Hungarian company expects, this figure may increase significantly. “The purchase of this asset will be an excellent step towards the implementation of MOL’s strategy, focused on the acquisition of mining assets in Russia,” the company said in a statement.

MOL is one of the largest vertically integrated oil and gas companies in Central and Eastern Europe with a market capitalization of more than $10 billion. As part of the new strategy, it plans to almost triple its hydrocarbon reserves - from 300 million to 900 million barrels. oil equivalent in 2010. The basis for growth should come from the development of oil fields in Russia, but so far MOL has not been very successful in this. Back in 2002, it agreed with Yukos on the joint development of the West Malobalykskoye field in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug with reserves of 25 million tons of oil. Later, Mikhail Gutseriev’s Russneft bought the Yukos share. In 2005, 2.75 million tons of oil were produced at this site. The field is expected to reach peak production this year. This summer, MOL, together with Gazprom, tried to buy Udmurtneft. Moreover, analysts called this alliance one of the most likely candidates for the former asset of TNK-BP. But even here the Hungarians were unlucky: they were ahead of another alliance - the Chinese Sinopec and Rosneft.

In October of this year, MOL managed to buy out from the North-Western Oil Group a 50 percent stake in their joint venture SZNG-MOL LLC, which owns a license for the Surgutsky-7 oil and gas area with C3 oil reserves of 1.9 million tons , in category D1 - 21.4 million tons. This site, located 10 km from the West Malobalykskoye field, became the first and so far the only independent project of the Hungarian company in Russia. The start of drilling exploration wells is planned for 2007. MOL supplies oil from Russia mainly to its two oil refineries in Hungary and Slovakia, selling the rest on the domestic market, including through Russneft.

According to experts, in this case the Hungarians are most likely acting independently. “This area is small, so it is unlikely that the company needed to get approval from above and create a joint venture with a Russian company,” says Veles-Capital analyst Mikhail Zak. Such an asset, according to Aton analyst Artem Konchin, could cost MOL $90-$150 million. “Taking into account ongoing production and developed infrastructure, the cost of one barrel of reserves could be approximately $1.5–$2.5,” - the expert explained. At the same time, analysts do not rule out that the field claimed by MOL will be located in close proximity to its assets in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.

Anna GORSHKOVA