Chairman and CEO Zsolt Hernádi commented on the performance: "The favorable external environment and the rebound in regional economic growth supported the good performance in the third quarter. At the same time, we also took advantage of our advantages, flexible integrated business model and our high degree of ownership. Cost-effective asset base and operations.
Our very strong year-to-date delivery in 2021 enables us to further upgrade our annual EBITDA guidance, which is expected to reach or exceed US$3.2 billion. At the same time, soaring commodity prices and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic have posed major risks to the economy and created a very turbulent business environment.
Therefore, we remain focused on maintaining financial and operational flexibility and fulfilling our long-term commitments related to sustainable development. The high year-to-date free cash flow generation allows us to fund our upcoming large-scale transformational investment within the framework of MOL's 2030 strategy. "
The upstream business became the group’s largest free cash flow contributor in the third quarter of 2021. EBITDA increased by 87% year-on-year to US$396 million. With the support of the macro economy, it was 18% higher than the previous quarter’s strong environment. . As the increase in crude oil prices reduced the net equity production of ACG assets in Azerbaijan and the natural decline in Central and Eastern Europe, the production declined slightly, resulting in 107.4 mboepd.
Downstream clean CCS EBITDA increased 116% from the same period last year to US$436 million. Supported by stronger contributions from petrochemicals and oil refining, it rebounded from the 2020 low. Due to strong regional fuel demand, sales in the third quarter increased by 7% year-on-year. Due to rising oil prices and falling polymer product prices, the overall petrochemical profit margin doubled year-on-year in the third quarter, but fell from the historical high in the second quarter. The construction of the polyol plant is progressing smoothly, with an overall completion rate of over 89% by the end of the third quarter of 2021.
Consumer services EBITDA reached US$211 million in the third quarter of 2021, thanks to the recovery of regional sales and non-fuel contributions. This growth benefited from the strong economic recovery in core markets. Automobile fuel demand in Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia exceeded the consumption level in the third quarter of 2019. Transaction volume increased by 12% year-on-year, because customer behavior in the same quarter last year was greatly affected by the epidemic. The number of Fresh Corner sites increased from 1,008 in the previous quarter to 1,028 in the third quarter.
Midstream natural gas EBITDA fell by 30% year-on-year to US$30 million in the third quarter. This was due to the decline in cross-border capacity and transmission demand, which led to a decline in transit revenue and regulatory revenue. Compared with the same period in 2020, domestic and export power transmission both further decreased by 26% in the third quarter. Due to the Serbia-Hungarian interconnection project, capital expenditures increased.
The Sustainalytics ESG risk rating report continues to recognize MOL's ESG efforts, and recently ranked MOL Group in the top 3% percentile, and ranked 7th with the lowest risk among the 256 global oil and gas peers in the industry group. In the context of the oil and gas industry, the risk rating of climate and environmental related material issues is low.
MOL Group is a comprehensive oil, gas, petrochemical and consumer goods retail company headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. It is active in more than 30 countries/regions, has a dynamic international workforce of 25,000 and a track record of more than 100 years. MOL Group operates three refineries and two petrochemical plants in Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia, adopts integrated supply chain management, and has a network of nearly 2,000 service stations in 10 countries in Central and Southeast Europe. MOL's exploration and production activities are supported by more than 85 years of experience in the hydrocarbon field and 30 years of experience in carbon dioxide injection. Currently, there are production activities in 9 countries and exploration assets in 14 countries.
MOL is committed to transforming its traditional fossil fuel-based business into a low-carbon, sustainable business model, and is eager to achieve net carbon neutrality by 2050, while shaping a low-carbon circular economy in Central and Eastern Europe.
MOL plc published this content on November 5, 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained in it. Distributed by the public at 23:11:08 on November 4, 2021, UTC time, unedited and unaltered.