Hungarian oil and gas company MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU) expects its operating environment to remain largely favorable in 2008 with only petrochemical margins undergoing a slight softening, the company said Friday.
MOL expects stable natural gas output this year and reckons higher Russian oil production will counterbalance lower domestic output levels, according to a presentation delivered by MOL executives.
In the downstream segment, MOL expects the favorable operational environment of previous years to continue in 2008 and added the planned refinery outages at two of its plants isn't likely to impact output levels. And its recently purchased Italian subsidiary, IES, is expected to boost the segment's output levels by 2.6 million metric tons in 2008.
MOL is continuously analyzing possibilities of further downstream acquisitions, not only in Central Eastern Europe and Russia but also in Italy and the Commonwealth of Independent States, MOL said.
"We expect more complex transactions in the future, including the usage of our own share in acquisitions," it said, adding that possibilities "for simple transactions in the region are limited."