ISLAMABAD, Nov 14: The net profit of Hungarian oil and gas company MOL has more than doubled to $589 million in the third quarter of 2006, up 112 per cent from a year ago.

According to a company announcement here on Tuesday, the increasing refinery product sales volumes, a better petrochemicals environment and a positive impact from the dollar's strength against the Hungarian forint (currency) contributed to boosting of its third-quarter profits.

The MOL Group, the operator of Tal block with its joint venture partners in NWFP, closed another strong quarter with increased profit in all segments.

"We demonstrated our commitment to further upstream expansion with our entry into new exploration blocks in Russia and Pakistan. Our downstream vision was justified by the double-digit demand growth in fuel demand in Hungary and Slovakia," stated Zsolt Hernadi, Chairman-CEO of MOL Group.

MOL Group’s net profit increased to $589 million in the third quarter as compared to $278 million for the same quarter last year. It has been successful in exploring significant hydrocarbon reserves in the area.

The group finished its compliance testing and concluded that the capital investments conducted in 2005 qualify the parent company for a corporate tax holiday in 2006 again. The corporate tax liability of HUF24.5 billion ($120 million) booked as an expense in the first half of 2006 has been reversed.

The group has recently signed two agreements with the government of Pakistan for exploration activities in two new blocks.