MOL Group

Foundation

On 1 October 1991, MOL was established as a legal successor, merging nine former members of the National Oil and Gas Trust, which had been established in 1957. By 1995, the actual integration of companies was completed, and the previously separated entities started to operate within one joint organization. MOL decided on a privatization strategy, in order to respond to international market, political and legal challenges, which the company was facing following the turmoil of the end of the Soviet Union. It thus became a pioneer in the regional consolidation of the oil and gas industry.

Regional expansion

In 1995, the company first expanded across national borders, opening filling stations in Transylvania, Romania. In the following years MOL continued to expand, and in 2000 acquired a 36% stake in Slovnaft, Slovakia's national oil company. The company thus became the first oil company in Central Europe to establish a cross-border partnership and also launched a new business branch by procuring 32.9% of Hungary's petrochemical company TVK.In 1999, MOL entered Pakistan, becoming the operator of TAL Block , one of the largest hydrocarbon producing blocks of the country.

International expansion

As a result of the 2002 INA Privatization Act, the open public tender for the privatization of a 25%+1 share stake in INA, Croatia's national oil company, was launched in May 2002. MOL won the tender with a bid of $505 million against OMV's offer of $420 million.By 2004, MOL had fully acquired, in several steps, Slovakia's national refiner Slovnaft, and Hungary's leading producer of ethylene and polypropylene TVK, over which MOL gained control with increasing their stake to 34.5% in 2001. Subsequently, MOL further increased its stake in TVK to 86.56% in 2006. In 2015, MOL then raised its shareholding in TVK to 100%.Between 2003 and 2005, MOL had acquired all Shell filling stations in Romania. In 2004, MOL entered the Austrian market by purchasing a fuel storage facility in Korneuburg, and a year later acquired the Roth filling station chain. In August 2007, MOL purchased Italiana Energia e Servizi S.p.A. , owner of the Mantua refinery and a chain of 165 retail stations in Italy.

International expansion II

In 2007, MOL entered the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, where its subsidiary MOL Kalegran owns 20% in Shaikan PSC. Further in 2009, MOL acquired a 10% stake in the Pearl Petroleum consortium from Crescent Petroleum and Dana Gas PJSC.In November 2007, MOL reported a new regional initiative to create a joint regional gas pipeline system called New European Transmission System . On 20 December 2007, MOL announced a strategic cooperation with Czech power utility CEZ. The joint venture with CEZ focuses on gas-fired power generation and related gas infrastructure in Central and Southeastern Europe, first launching two 800 MW power plants in Hungary and Slovakia. After selling 7% of its shares to CEZ within the scopes of a strategic partnership, MOL announced on 10 March 2008 the sale of an 8% stake to the Oman Oil Company for the same reason.On 9 May 2008, MOL signed an agreement to acquire a 35% interest in a block in India operated by the Indian ONGC. In the same year MOL further acquired 22.16% of INA's shares through its general public offer on the Zagreb Stock Exchange.On 24 May 2011, the second Orbán-cabinet bought the Russian Surgutneftegas's shares, thus the Hungarian state acquired 21.2% of the shares within the company.In late 2013, MOL entered the North Sea by acquiring Wintershall’s portfolio, which included a mix of producing fields and undeveloped projects. It also acquired a position in the Scott hub in the central North Sea. MOL further expanded its exploration portfolio by entering Norway in 2015, after acquiring Ithaca Petroleum Norge.On May 8, 2014, MOL announced the acquisition of the Italian Eni’s subsidiaries in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania, including the retail network of 208 petrol stations previously operated under the Agip brand. The transaction also included the takeover of Eni's wholesale interests in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania. In the Czech Republic, MOL's retail market share exceeded 10 percent thanks to 125 new gas stations and 24 Slovnaft and 125 PAP Oil filling stations, also belonging to the group. With 274 service stations, the MOL Group is the second largest retailer of fuel in the country. In Slovakia, 253 petrol stations were already part of the entire network, with 41 filling stations purchased at the time. In Romania, the existing network expanded by 42 wells, adding 189 items, accounting for 12% of retail sales.

Diversification

In 2016, MOL announced its new long-term strategy MOL 2030 in response to expected fossil fuel peak demand. According to the company, its integrated upstream-downstream business model would continue to provide stable and robust profitability for the next 10-15 years, but new investments are seen to be essential for MOL’s future. As part of the strategy, the company intends to diversify the classical Oil & Gas business and develop into the region’s leading chemical and consumer goods and services company. According to Wall Street Journal, "MOL has a transformation plan that is among the most explicit responses to the trend, indicating how the landscape may change for big energy providers over the next decade."Through 2030, MOL scheduled investments of US$4.5 billion to expand its petrochemical business and to extend away from the commodity segment into higher value-added chemical products. One of the first projects following the new strategy was the Polyol chemical project. In September 2018, MOL reached final investment on the project and signed engineering, procurement and construction contracts with ThyssenKrupp.In October 2019, the foundation stone for the complex in Tiszaújváros, Hungary, was laid by Zsolt Hernádi, Ferenc Koncz, Sami Pelkonen and Mihály Varga. The plant is scheduled to be fully operational by 2021.As part of MOL 2030, the company has also begun to build up its recycling capabilities and formed a partnership for plastic recycling with German APK in 2018, and in 2019 acquired Aurora, a German recycled plastic compounding company.As part of its retail strategy, MOL aims to become a fast-moving consumer goods retailer and reshape the transportation in Central Eastern Europe. By 2030, the company's goal is to double its consumer services EBITDA from 15% to 30%. In 2017, MOL launched fleet management, e-mobility and car sharing ventures.In September 2019, MOL Serbia opened a new fuel storage depot in Sremski Karlovci. With total investments in Serbia exceeding €500 million, the facility will be used to store and process fuels for the currently 62 gas stations in the country. The compound is MOL's largest investment into Serbia over the last 15 years. In the same month, more than 100 recently graduated young professionals from 18 nationalities started their career at MOL Group's Growww program.In November 2019, MOL signed an agreement with Chevron, acquiring their 9.57% interest in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil field, one of the world's largest oil fields that is located in the Caspian Sea, and an 8.9% stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. The pipeline transports crude oil from ACG to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. The total transaction was valued at $1.57 billion.In November 2019, MOL Group announced it had acquired 100% shareholding in German plastic compounder company Aurora.At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, MOL shifted production of windshield washer at its Almásfüzit? plant to hand and surface sanitizers to offer protection against the coronavirus.In 2014 as a strategic goal, MOL started investigating the solutions of diversifying its crude oil supply and to adapt its refineries to process non-Russian alternative crude oil, in order to reach greater flexibility. Until 2022 MOL invested more than USD 170 million on building up the alternative logistic solution on the Adria pipeline. This allows more seaborne deliveries to supply the Duna and Slovnaft refineries in Hungary and Slovakia. Due to the crude diversification efforts, Duna refinery can currently process about 35% of non-REB feedstock, mixed in with Urals crude. The war in Ukraine has accelerated this process of planning. MOL needs an investment-cycle of up to $700million and at least 2-4 years to be able to switch to 100% alternative crude processing.

MOL Group 2030+

In February 2021, The Board of Directors reviewed and approved "Shape Tomorrow" MOL Group 2030+, an update of the company’s long-term strategy, and sustainability strategy. The 2030+ strategy also laid out the plans for the Group’s downstream, upstream and consumer services operations. MOL started to implement the updated strategy right after the publication.

In June 2021, MOL Group reached an agreement to acquire OMV’s 92.25% stake in OMV Slovenija d.o.o., the Slovenian arm of Austrian oil and gas giant OMV AG for €301million.