CVX Chevron Corporation

By Ian Walker

MOL Group said Monday that it is buying non-operated exploration-and-production and mid-stream interests in Azerbaijan from Chevron Corp. (CVX) for $1.57 billion.

The Hungarian oil-and-gas company said the deal includes a 9.57% stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil field, and an effective 8.9% stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline that transports the crude to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, Turkey. It is buying the assets from Chevron Global Ventures Ltd. and Chevron BTC Pipeline, Ltd.

The Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli is operated by BP PLC (BP.LN) with a 30.4% interest, and produced on average 584,000 barrels a day in 2018. It is expected to add around 20,000 barrels of oil a day to MOL's production in the coming years and increase reserves, the company said.

"With these new barrels we are also strengthening our resilient, integrated business model, which will continue to generate robust cash flow to finance the MOL 2030 transformational projects as well as rising dividends to our shareholders," Chairman Zsolt Hernadi said.

The deal, which is conditional upon government and regulatory approvals, is expected to close by the second quarter of 2020.

Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com; @IanWalk40289749

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 04, 2019 06:54 ET (11:54 GMT)

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