Hungary: MOL wrote off its Sisak Croatia oil refinery

Published on 6. October 2014., SEE Energy News

Hungarian oil and gas company is not afraid for Russian oil deliveries and it considers the Croatian refineries as the least competitive in Europe
Hungarian oil and gas company MOL is confident that its deliveries of Russian crude oil through Ukraine will not be interrupted by the Ukrainian crisis since the MOL’s partners are reputable companies, said the company’s executive vice president for refining and sale of petroleum products Ferenc Horváth.

He added that the MOL began to procure oil over Croatia last year, although the major part of imported oil continues to come from Russia via Ukraine. But the company buys one oil tanker of 80 000 tons that come through Croatia to Hungary each month. Additionally, he commented on problems with refineries in Croatia and considers it “probably the smallest and least competitive in Europe”.

According to him, the Oil Refinery Rijeka has a better chance to be competitive, but the Oil Refinery Sisak has no chance to restore the profitability of refinery operations. On the other hand, Horváth noted that MOL refineries in Hungary and Slovakia operated well. In the third quarter, it was increased MOL profit in the refinery and petrochemical sector because it were increased the refinery margins and fuel economy in Central Europe and Horváth expects these trends to continue until the end of the year, reports the Hungarian portal ‘Portfolio.hu.