By Margit Feher
BUDAPEST--Hungarian oil and gas company MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU) said
Thursday that it is close to selling a 49% stake in its fully-owned
subsidiary BaiTex LLC to Turkish Petroleum Corporation, Turkey's
national oil company.
Financial terms weren't disclosed.
BaiTex is the holder of the hydrocarbon licenses for the
Baituganskoye field and Yerilkinsky block in the Volga-Ural region
of Russia. As a result of the transaction, MOL's proved and
probable reserves are expected to decrease by 37 million barrels of
oil equivalent and 54 MMboe, respectively, the company said.
Average production of the Baitugan field was 6,600 barrels of oil
equivalents a day in 2013.
As a 51% owner of BaiTex, MOL will remain the operating
shareholder of the company.
The sale is part of MOL's long-term portfolio-management and
risk-sharing strategy, it said. The deal is to conclude in March,
it added.
"MOL remains very committed to continuing its operations in
Russia and has the financial flexibility to re-invest in promising
new upstream assets to provide future growth," the company
said.
MOL and TPAO are in discussions to identify other potential
upstream cooperation opportunities, the Hungarian firm said.
Partly state-owned MOL, Hungary's biggest firm by sales income,
conducts exploration activities in 12 countries. TPAO is involved
in hydrocarbon exploration, drilling, production and marketing.
Write to Margit Feher at margit.feher@wsj.com
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