Vienna  - Hungarian oil and gas group MOL Plc. plans to operate 100 petrol stations in Austria this year, the company's CEO Zsolt Hernadi said in Vienna on Monday.

MOL was aiming at a market share between five and 10 per cent of Austria's petrol retail market, Hernadi told Austrian public broadcaster ORF.

The Hungarian company has told its Austrian rival OMV AG it wanted to buy 100 of its stations, but had not received and answer yet, Austrian news agency APA reported.

So far, MOL owns 34 Austrian discount filling stations under the brand name Roth. These stations would not be rebranded, spokesman Szabolcs Ferencz said, as "MOL is a premium brand."

In August, OMV stopped its contentious bid to take over MOL, after the European Commission had not accepted its proposals to prevent regional market concentration in retail and refining.

MOL had been strongly opposed to the merger, buying back shares and lending them to friendly banks and institutions to circumvent a 10-per-cent limit on voting rights. (dpa)