MOL Group takes financial measures to reduce economic damage of COVID-19

MOL Group implements health, safety, operational and financial measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic situation.

Operational and capital expenditures will be reduced materially to preserve cash and to allow MOL to manage through challenging times even in the case of a longer lasting crisis.

Due to the uncertainty about the duration and impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the extreme volatility of the external environment, and the unpredictability of demand across the businesses, MOL is withdrawing its EBITDA guidance for 2020, lowering capital spending by at least 25% to below USD 1.5bn in 2020, completing a comprehensive review of operational expenditure to preserve cash.

Adapting to the ever-changing situation, MOL has implemented different actions and created new solutions in the past few weeks to reduce the likelihood of infection among employees and customers. These preventive and precautionary measures affect retail, downstream and upstream sites as they support social distancing, increase hygienic awareness and include the provision of protective equipment to our colleagues, the changing of shift patterns throughout the Group’s plants and exploration sites, the implementation of testing in key operational areas and the switch to home office wherever possible.

“The energy industry, while better positioned to weather the economic hardships than some others, enters a period of uncertainty it has probably never faced before, with scenarios ranging to extremes, which were impossible to imagine even a few weeks ago,” said MOL Group’s Chairman-CEO Zsolt Hernádi.

Lockdowns in core countries of operations have resulted in a significant drop in demand of 20-40% for key product groups.

MOL Group operates three refineries and two petrochemicals plants under integrated supply chain management in Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia, and owns a network of about 1900 service stations across 10 countries.