Hungarian oil and gas company MOL has successfully completed the first phase of planned overhaul of its Danube refinery at Szazhalombatta, thus the refinery is again operating at full capacity.
MOL had initially planned to carry out the maintenance and shutdown in April, but the fuel market situation did not allow it at that time. According to the company, this was the largest maintenance operation in the history of the Danube refinery with a budget of some 20 million euros. The second phase of the overhaul process will start on 9 October.
Last weekend, Hungarian Government announced that the fuel retail price cap will remain in place until 31 December 2022.
In response to questions regarding fuel shortages in Hungary, MOL said that there is enough fuel in Hungary, but it has a much larger customer base than before because of the drop in imports – the company covers more than 80 % of the country‟s fuel needs. Since the beginning of March, MOL has signed wholesale contracts with 258 new partners, including a number of independent petrol stations that did not previously buy their fuel from MOL. Recently introduced restrictions of supplying only 25 % of agreed volume of petrol and diesel only apply to these new partners, who have been added to the customer base this year due to the loss of imports.