MOL Group signs exploration agreement with Kazakhstani national oil company, KazMunayGas

MOL Group and Kazakhstani national oil company KazMunayGas (KMG) have signed today a cooperation agreement to jointly explore opportunities in the oil, gas and petrochemical sector. This agreement builds on the successful joint venture in Kazakhstan, where MOL, KMG and Sinopec from China have been producing gas and gas condensate at the Rozhkovskoye field. 

Under the cooperation agreement, MOL Group and KMG expressed their desire to investigate new growth opportunities in the areas of hydrocarbon exploration and production, technology transfer, crude supply, and petrochemicals as strategic partners, advancing their relationship to a new level.

The agreement’s key priority is the expansion of the existing exploration and production cooperation and the application of MOL technology in Kazakhstan to increase the yield of mature producing fields and the sale of produced hydrocarbons in Europe. In addition to this, the partners will seek opportunities of potential petrochemical project concepts in Kazakhstan. Also, the two companies are looking for possible import of Kazakh crude oil to Europe and Hungary.

The document was signed in Budapest by MOL Group Chairman and CEO Zsolt Hernádi and KMG Chairman of the Management Board Askhat Khassenov in the framework of the visit of the Kazakh President to Hungary.

"The agreement we signed today further strengthens our 20-years long good relationship with our partners in Kazakhstan," said Zsolt Hernádi, Chairman and CEO of MOL Group. "We have been successful in developing the Rozhkovskoye gas field and we found great expertise, friendships and possibilities in Kazakhstan. I must say that we are very much open to have more of this kind of adventures. Today’s signing opens new doors for us and we are confident we will find new projects with KazMunayGas. Here I would like to thank the support of both of our Governments to make this happen. I can promise that we at MOL are eager to boost the Kazakh-Hungarian economic relations further with new flagship projects in the energy sector." 

MOL celebrates the 20th anniversary of its presence in Kazakhstan this year. The company has so far invested around USD 200 million in the Kazakh oil sector, making it the largest Hungarian investor in the country.

KMG and MOL Group have been successfully working together in the Rozhkovskoye gas and gas-condensate field in Kazakhstan as part of the international joint venture including KMG, Kazakhstan (50%), MOL Group, Hungary (27.5%), and FIOC, China (22.5%). The field was discovered in 2008 and after exploration and appraisal, five out of nine drilled wells were successfully re-completed for production. First gas was reached in December 2023, and since then production of the wells boosted to 1.35 million cubic meters of gas per day gross, contributing by 4,43 thousand bopd equivalent to MOL Group’s production.

The agreement signed today with KMG follows the ones MOL Group has recently signed with other strategic partners including the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and with Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) in Türkiye.