Daily Hungary News | 22 April 2025

US court sides with MOL: Croatia ordered to pay $200 million in damages

A U.S. federal court has dismissed Croatia’s request to block the enforcement of a 2022 arbitration ruling in favor of Hungarian energy giant MOL. As a result, MOL is now entitled to collect a compensation amount that has grown to $200 million with interest.

The legal dispute dates back to 2013, when MOL filed a claim against the Croatian government, alleging that it breached a key gas purchase agreement related to the jointly owned energy company INA. According to MOL, Croatia’s failure to fulfill its contractual obligations caused substantial financial losses.

The arbitration was conducted under the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), which operates under the World Bank. In 2022, the tribunal ruled in MOL’s favor, awarding $184 million in damages—a sum that has since increased to approximately $200 million due to accrued interest, Balk said.

Croatia later challenged the arbitration decision in a U.S. court, seeking to halt its enforcement. However, the federal court in Washington D.C. rejected the motion, reaffirming MOL’s right to recover the damages.

MOL’s original claim argued that Croatia had failed to purchase the full volume of INA’s domestically produced gas at market prices over 15 years, as agreed. MOL contended that this failure resulted in damages worth an estimated 2 billion Croatian kunas, equating to roughly 71 billion forints based on current exchange rates.