MOL decided on the development program in the Duna refinery

On 24 May 2007, the Board of Directors of MOL Group approved a development program for the Duna refinery, which will allow MOL to produce additional 1.3 million tones gas oil per year, to meet the strong demand growth on gas oil markets.

The program consists of three major elements. Firstly, the processing capacity of heavy and sour crude oils - Ural, Kirkuk etc. - will grow by 1.3 Mt/year through the revamp of one of the distillation units used currently for domestic crudes. Secondly, the conversion level of the refinery will be increased by constructing a new vacuum gas oil (VGO) hydrocrack unit of 1.5 Mt/year capacity. Finally, to process the incremental heavy residues, the existing Delayed coker unit will be upgraded by an additional capacity of 300 kt/year. The project also requires both the construction of a new hydrogen generation unit and an increase in the sulfur recovery capacity of the refinery.

The USD 420 million investment program is expected to be completed in 2010.

Diesel demand has seen double digit growth in recent years driven by car fleets' adoption of diesel and the growth in transportation, which is expected to continue in the coming years. This investment is in line with MOL's strategic aim of increasing crude oil product sales and diesel production share.

This project demonstrates our intention to grab organic growth opportunities. Leveraging on our outstanding refinery operation with the highest net cash margin among European refiners, and our commercial skills we believe, we can profitably capture emerging diesel growth opportunity. The expected return on this project exceeds our strategic targets.