MOL Q3 Earnings Slip

Third-quarter net income of Hungarian oil and gas company MOL fell 15% year-on-year to HUF 94.8 billion as revenue dropped, an earnings report released ahead of the opening bell on Friday shows.

Net sales declined 8% to HUF 2,268 billion. Operating profit slipped 7% to HUF 163.0 billion.

MOL noted that EBITDA, at current cost of supply and adjusted for one-offs, rose 15% to USD 974 million.

Upstream EBITDA, excluding one-offs, edged up 2% to USD 285 million and downstream EBITDA, at current cost of supply and cleared for one-offs, climbed 51% to USD 452 million.

EBITDA of the consumer services business rose 28% to USD 317 million, lifted by strong fuel sales. Earnings per share came to HUF 127.

In guidance, MOL put full-year EBITDA, at current cost of supply and adjusted for one-offs, at around USD 3.0 billion, after reaching USD 2.491 billion in Q1-Q3.

Addressing recent operational developments, MOL said that damage assessment following a fire at its Danube Refinery on October 20 was ongoing. One of three atmospheric vacuum distillation units there was severely damaged in the fire, but other parts of the refinery were unaffected. As the units not affected in the fire have been successfully restarted, the Danube refinery is expected to run at around 50-55% capacity until the affected unit is repaired, equivalent to about 250,000-300,000 tons of lost processing capacity per month, MOL said.