WSJ: MOL Ups its Stake in Central Europe, Buys Lukoil’s Czech Fuel Stations

Hungarian oil and gas group took the opportunity to widen its retail network in Central Europe when it bought this week filling stations from Russia’s Lukoil Holdings amid a battle with regional peers.

Russia’s Lukoil Holdings was the second major oil firm this year to leave the region after Italy’s ENI. Lukoil agreed to sell 44 Czech gas stations which boosted MOL’s network to 318, giving it a market share of nearly 10%, Budapest-based Equilor said.

In Central Europe, MOL competes with Poland’s PKN Orlen and Austria’s OMV.

In the Czech Republic, the largest player is PKN Orlen with its 338 Benzina stations while its subsidiary Unipetrol recently bought ENI’s 32.5% interest in refinery Ceska Rafinerska. It also has a dominant position in its home country Poland and has filling stations in Germany and a struggling refinery in Lithuania.
MORE