MOL Group continues to expand its oil supply diversification efforts in the Central and Eastern European region, with the company importing 85,000 tonnes of CPC blend crude oil and signing a new oil trading agreement with Kazakhstan’s national oil company, KazMunayGas (KMG).
The partnership between MOL and KMG spans nearly two decades, dating back to 2004, and has continued to strengthen over time. At the end of 2024, the companies formalised their relationship by signing a cooperation agreement to leverage opportunities in Kazakhstan. The current oil trading agreement represents a further step in enhancing supply security for the Central and Eastern European region.
A shipment of CPC (Caspian Pipeline Consortium) crude oil recently arrived at Omišalj, Croatia, from the port of Novorossiysk. The 85,000-tonne delivery of CPC blend, primarily consisting of Kazakh crude oil, adds to the growing volume of seaborne crude oil entering the region. Kazakh crude oil has become an essential component of MOL Group’s oil diversification programme, representing one of 14 oil types already tested at the Bratislava refinery and regularly imported into the region.
Gabriel Szabó, executive vice president of Downstream at MOL Group, emphasised the significance of the partnership and the company’s long-term diversification strategy. He noted that MOL Group has spent over a decade enhancing the Adria pipeline and its associated infrastructure, improving refinery technology flexibility, and establishing new commercially reliable supply routes. Szabó highlighted that identifying reliable suppliers and high-quality alternative crude oil types forms an integral part of this process, expressing satisfaction with the strengthening cooperation with Kazakh partners built upon more than two decades of successful collaboration.
MOL and KMG elevated their relationship to strategic partner status at the end of 2024, with both companies exploring opportunities across multiple sectors including hydrocarbon exploration and production, technology transfer, crude oil supply, and petrochemicals. The 2024 agreement focused on expanding existing exploration and production cooperation, which includes joint operations with China’s Sinopec at the Rozhkovskoye field for gas and gas condensate production, as well as the application of MOL’s technology in Kazakhstan.
The Kazakhstan partnership forms part of MOL Group’s broader supply diversification strategy. The company recently signed a commercial agreement with MVM for the annual import of 160,000 tonnes of Azerbaijani crude oil, representing 1.5 percent of MOL’s crude oil processing capacity. This relationship with Azerbaijani crude oil extends back several years, with MOL Group acquiring a stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) oilfield in 2020. The company delivered 5 million barrels of crude oil from this field to the region in the previous year.
The current oil trading agreement with KazMunayGas further reinforces supply security for Central and Eastern Europe, demonstrating MOL Group’s commitment to building reliable, long-term partnerships while addressing regional energy security challenges.
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