Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries S.A. is a petroleum industry company based in Greece focusing on oil refining and trading. It is a leading force in its sector in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean.[5][6]
Motor Oil Hellas was founded on May 7, 1970, by Vardis Vardinogiannis and Georgios Paraschos Aleksandridis. It is headquartered in Marousi, Greece.[1] Since 1972 Vardis J. Vardinoyannis has been chairman and managing director.[7] The company has over 2,000 employees.[1]
In 2020 Motor Oil Hellas gave TechnipFMC a significant engineering, procurement, and construction management services contract. The new naphtha complex in Greece will have three new processing units and a capacity of 22000 oilbbl/d.[9] The construction work is scheduled to be complete in 2021.
Through its Korinthos refinery, Motor Oil controls 35% of the refining sector in Greece.[10] The company operates the second-largest refiner (Corinth Refinery) in Europe and the Cairo-based oil and gas exploration and production facilities in Egypt. It also owns the Avin, Shell and Cyclon chain of fuel stations in Greece, more than 2,000, along with a host of other gas and energy-related businesses.[11]
In 2025, Motor Oil Hellas inaugurated Greece’s first hydrogen refuelling station in Agioi Theodoroi, operated by its subsidiary Avin Oil.[12] The station is the first in Europe to be co-financed (50%) by the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) – Transport programme, as part of a €3 million investment. The facility currently sources green hydrogen from Austria, with plans to use hydrogen from a nearby 50MW production plant under development by Motor Oil.
Construction of a 30MW electrolyser has begun at the Korinthos refinery, with an additional 20MW ordered from Sweden-based Metacon in early 2025. The overall project aims to produce up to 60,000 tonnes of hydrogen and 25,000 tonnes of e-methanol annually by 2029. The European Commission approved a €111.7 million subsidy in February 2025 to support the hydrogen development project.[13]
Motor Oil Hellas has numerous subsidiaries, such as:
Motor Oil's majority shareholder is two holding companies (Petroventure and Motor Oil Limited with 40.97%),[4] that belongs to the prominent Greek family of Vardinogiannis, the rest of its shares are available to the public through a float on the Athens and the London Stock Exchange.
