Business 17 December 2025, 12:35pm

Hungary's Mol signs agreement with Azerbaijan State Oil Company

Portfolio

Hungarian energy group Mol and SOCAR (the Azerbaijan State Oil Company) have on Wednesday signed a comprehensive agreement for the exploration, development and production of hydrocarbons in an onshore area of the Shamakhi-Gobustan region of Azerbaijan. Mol has a 65% stake as operator in the joint exploration project, with SOCAR holding the remaining 35%.

This comprehensive agreement, based on the June 2025 agreement which covered the key terms for hydrocarbon exploration in the Shamakhi–Gobustan region, marks a significant milestone in the strategic partnership between Mol and SOCAR, and builds on previous successful collaborations.

Zsolt Hernádi (Chairman and CEO of Mol Group) and Rovshan Najaf (President of SOCAR) signed the agreement.

The final agreement on our latest collaboration with SOCAR represents another significant step towards our shared goal of exploring new opportunities and expanding our partnership in Azerbaijan's exploration and production sector,

commented Zsolt Hernádi.

Through the ACG project, we have laid strong foundations in Azerbaijan, which is an important pillar of our international activities, plays a significant role in Central Europe's energy security, and provides us with flexibility in crude oil procurement and refining,

he added.

The agreement consolidates Mol's long-term strategic presence in the Caspian region and strengthens its partnership with SOCAR in developing Azerbaijan's hydrocarbon reserves. It also strengthens the economic and energy cooperation between Azerbaijan and Hungary.

The next stage of the research project will involve taking seismic measurements, which are due to start in early 2026. This will be followed by exploratory drilling.

Mol Group entered Azerbaijan in 2020 by acquiring a 9.57% stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (“ACG”), one of the world’s largest oil fields, and an effective 8.9% stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (“BTC”) pipeline that transports the crude to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. This represents 14% of Mol 's total production and 25% of total reserves as of 2024. The BTC pipeline plays an important role in Mol 's supply of oil to Mol Group's refineries in Central and Eastern Europe. Although Mol holds a minority stake in the ACG project, it is actively contributing to the development of the field by drawing on its eight decades of expertise in inventory management and production optimisation.

So far, 18 million barrels of Mol’s crude oil was transported from the ACG field through the BTC pipeline and cargo ships to Mol Group’s refineries, including Slovnaft’s Bratislava and INA’s Rijeka Refinery.

Cover photo: Portfolio