Hungarian oil group MOL has cut its crude oil production forecasts mainly due to lower expected output from its fields in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, which had been seen as an important growth driver for its upstream business.



Output was expected to fall to 91,000-96,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year from 96,900 in the fourth quarter of last year, before growing again in 2015, MOL said in an investor presentation posted on its website on Tuesday.

Production will rise to 105,000-110,000 bpd in 2015 and peak at about 125,000-135,000 by 2018, based on its current upstream portfolio, MOL said.

That is way lower than a 170,000-180,000 bpd target set out in an investor presentation in November 2013, although it was not immediately clear whether that number had included potential new acquisitions.

"Two drillings (in Kurdistan) were unsuccessful recently and this led them to downgrade the field's potential," Concorde analyst Attila Vago said.