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MOL Chief Attacks Gov't Policy in Hungary - “Patching Holes” More Than “Strategic Thinking”

• 5 Aug 2024 12:09 PM
• Hungary Matters

The impact of investments postponed because of sectoral taxes will show up in Hungary’s GDP, Zsolt Hernádi, the chairman-CEO of Hungarian oil and gas company MOL, said at an event organised by the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) in Esztergom, in northern Hungary.

Hernádi told a panel discussion at the MCC Fest festival that he believed the government’s policy had been more about “patching holes” than “strategic thinking” over the past year and a half.

He added that his criticism of government measures to boost revenue with sectoral taxes expressed in a recently published opinion piece originated from the broader impact that policy would have, beyond the effect on MOL.

Hernádi said he had not received any response, “official or unofficial”, to his piece, but noted that budget spending cuts had been ordered in some areas since.

Addressing Ukraine’s stoppage of transit deliveries of crude oil to Hungary from Russia’s Lukoil, he acknowledged that Hungary could get crude through the Adria pipeline, but said that the Croatian state had raised transit fees 4-5 times over the market average and would not sign a long-term delivery contract with MOL.

Hernádi added that there was no need for concern about fuel shortages at present. He said that taking delivery of Russian crude by sea was possible but would be “far more expensive”.

Touching on the topic of electric vehicles, he said the 2035 cut-off date for production of cars with internal combustion engines wasn’t feasible as there wasn’t enough feedstock to make batteries, the electric grid couldn’t handle the additional burden and the scale of consumer demand was insufficient.

MTI Stock Photo - for illustrative purposes only

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