On its 50th birthday, Motor Oil is taking the next big step and creating Motor Oil Renewable Energy (MORE Energy).
“Our main characteristic is continuous development. Today we are transferring the experience of the last 50 years to our next step, MORE”, said the deputy CEO of the energy group, Petros Tzannetakis, yesterday during a special event for the group’s new company in green energy. The experienced executive and one of the trusted associates of the Vardinogiannis family marked the transition of the Corinth refineries group to the era of RES and cleaner forms of energy. But, as he underlined, his contribution to the country’s energy security.
“Consistency, continuity, stability, reliability, but also an M, like the initial letter of MORE, which stands for Measure, are the values with which we move towards the sustainable development of the group”, emphasized Mr. Tzannetakis from the Faros area in the Center “Stavros Niarchos” culture, sending the message of the well-balanced and sustainable course that Motor Oil follows even in the midst of uncertain times, such as the energy crisis.
Verticalization
The deputy CEO of the group with the creation of MORE essentially announced the further verticalization of the activities of the Motor Oil group in four axes:
- Refineries with energy efficiency and carbon sequestration,
- Investment in electrification and increase in RES,
- Development of the “Gas Canal” for future LNG and hydrogen storage
- Energy production from waste.
Motor Oil’s investment plan includes its expansion into cleaner forms of energy and hydrogen.
MORE and Ellaktor
The general manager of MORE Energy, Victor Papaconstantinou, explained the strategic choice of the group’s development in RES: “It is the form of energy that does not depend on other countries and has a low cost” he emphasized and gave a preview of the financial dimensions of the Motor Oil member company.
As he said, the invested capital amounts to 1.6 billion. euros and the EBITDA is estimated at 130 million euros.
The installed capacity when the acquisition of Ellactor’s RES portfolio is completed will be close to 1 GW, while the pipeline of permits creates a pool of candidate projects of the order of 2.2 GW. According to what Mr. Papakonstantinou said on the sidelines of the event, the acquisition of the former “Anemos” is expected to be completed at the end of the year.
He said that in this phase MORE Energy will gather RES, manage energy as a Body of Power Storage Representation with a total capacity of 500 MW, and energy trade.
The new company of the Motor Oil group sees foreign markets, while its further growth will come with organic growth but also with acquisitions of mainly mature RES licenses.
Taxation of additional income
At the end of yesterday’s event at “Stavros Niarchos”, management officials were invited to comment on the European Commission’s regulation and the government’s decision to tax the additional revenues of the refineries with an extraordinary 33%.
As they noted, the specific provisions of the Regulation have ambiguities, such as, for example, whether oil trading companies will also fall under taxation. In addition, they raised the issue of whether the profits from the maintenance of safety stocks should also be included in taxation, as well as those derived from the activities of the outbound activity of the Greek refineries.
