Page 11 - EurOil Week 19 2021

EurOil PERFORMANCE EurOil

MOL swings back

into black in Q1

HUNGARY HUNGARIAN oil group MOL returned to net Output averaged 116,700 barrels of oil equiv-
profit in the first quarter of this year, on the back alent per day (boepd) in the three months,
of higher oil and gas prices and strong petro- slightly lower than in the previous quarter but
chemical margins. The company, one of the big- up 6% y/y thanks to the ACG purchase.
gest fuel retailers in Europe, also attributed the In contrast, downstream EBITDA was down
improvement to a recovery in consumer services 14% y/y at $254mn, owing to lower refining vol-
following the easing of lockdown measures. umes and weaker margins, partly offset by the
MOL earned a net profit of HUF92.3bn strong petrochemicals performance. EBITDA
($311mn) in the three-month period, mark- from consumer services came in at $115mn,
ing a reversal from a HUF48.4bn loss a year marking its highest ever quarterly level, despite
earlier. This exceeded the consensus forecast of seasonality and a third wave of coronavirus
HUF64.3bn of analysts polled by business web- (COVID-19) travel restrictions.
site Portfolio.hu. “This strong performance is the product of
Pre-tax earnings (EBITA) came in at $664mn previous strategic initiatives combined with
on a clean current cost of supplies basis, repre- our integrated resilient business model,” MOL
senting a 7% increase year on year and also CEO Zsolt Hernadi said in a statement. “I am
surpassing the forecast. This was driven by 66% particularly pleased to see a good set of results
growth in upstream EBITDA to $307mn, owing in both petrochemicals and consumer services,
to higher prices as well as MOL’s acquisition of a the two important pillars of our transformational
stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) pro- strategy.”
ject in Azerbaijan, which was completed in April MOL’s free cash flow (FCF) increased 17% to
last year. $383mn. ™

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