MOL is buying Shell's 35 percent of the Aphrodite gas field for up to $720m, and the field does not produce anything until 2031
The release opens with a formula rather than a claim. MOL Plc hereby notifies the capital markets of the following, it says, and what follows is the largest exploration and production commitment the Hungarian group has made since 2019.
MOL has signed an agreement with Shell to acquire BG Cyprus Ltd, a wholly owned Shell subsidiary holding a non-operated 35 percent interest in Cyprus Offshore Block 12. The block contains the Aphrodite gas field in the eastern Mediterranean. Total consideration is up to 720 million dollars, subject to adjustments at closing, and MOL says that figure includes contingent payments reflecting key milestones of project execution.
Completion is expected in early 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions.
What is actually in the ground, and when it arrives
Aphrodite was discovered in 2011 and appraised through later drilling. MOL puts the estimate at around 104 billion cubic metres of contingent gas, which it converts to 632 million barrels of oil equivalent, plus 8 million barrels of condensate.
Contingent is the operative word, and it is the company's own. These are volumes discovered but not yet committed to development, which is why the schedule matters more than the resource number. The development plan MOL describes has four wells, an independent floating production facility sited in the eastern Mediterranean, and a 250 kilometre subsea pipeline connecting the field to Egypt's gas transmission network. Final investment decision is planned in 2027. First gas is expected in 2031.
So a buyer paying in 2027 waits four years for the first molecule, on a plan that has not been sanctioned.
The partners MOL joins
Chevron is the operator with 35 percent. NewMed Energy, of Israel, holds the remaining 30 percent and does not operate. MOL's release describes both as having extensive deepwater experience in the region.
Zsolt Hernadi, MOL's chairman and chief executive, is quoted in the release describing the signing as the group embarking on one of the most significant exploration and production projects in its history, and framing the entry into Cyprus as an expansion within the European Union that supports long-term production targets and the reserve base. He compares it to the acquisition of a 9.57 percent stake in the Azeri Chirag Gunashli field in Azerbaijan in 2019, which the release names as the last comparable step.
No production figure, no capital expenditure estimate and no share of the development cost appears in MOL's release. Those would follow a final investment decision, which is eighteen months out on the company's own timetable.
