MOL Group and Kazakhstani national oil company KazMunayGas (KMG) have today entered into a cooperation agreement to collaboratively explore opportunities in the oil, gas, and petrochemical sectors. This agreement builds upon their successful joint venture in Kazakhstan, where MOL, KMG, and China's Sinopec have been producing gas and gas condensate at the Rozhkovskoye field.

Source: MOLGroup

Through this cooperation agreement, MOL Group and KMG aim to investigate new growth opportunities in hydrocarbon exploration and production, technology transfer, crude oil supply, and petrochemicals as strategic partners, enhancing their collaborative relationship.

The primary focus of the agreement is to expand the existing exploration and production collaboration and implement MOL's technology in Kazakhstan to boost the yield from mature oil fields and facilitate the sale of produced hydrocarbons in Europe. Additionally, the partners will explore potential petrochemical project concepts in Kazakhstan and seek opportunities for importing Kazakh crude oil to Europe and Hungary.

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

This year, MOL celebrates two decades of its presence in Kazakhstan, having invested approximately USD 200 million in the Kazakh oil sector, making it the largest Hungarian investor in the country.

The agreement we signed today further strengthens our 20-years long good relationship with our partners in Kazakhstan. 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 Group and KMG have been successfully collaborating in the Rozhkovskoye gas and gas-condensate field in Kazakhstan as part of an international joint venture involving KMG (50%), MOL Group (27.5%), and FIOC (22.5%). Discovered in 2008, after exploration and appraisal, five out of nine drilled wells have been successfully re-completed for production. The first gas was achieved in December 2023, and production has since increased to 1.35 million cubic meters of gas per day gross, contributing 4.43 thousand barrels per day of oil equivalent to MOL Group’s production.

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