Explosion occurs at oil refinery in Hungary: one person killed, several seriously injured

An explosion occurred at the MOL Petrolkémia plant in Tiszaújváros, Hungary. It is the largest multinational oil and gas company. At least one person is known to have died and several others were injured.

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has reported this.

The explosion occurred at the MOL Group’s Olefin-1 petrochemical plant in Tiszaújváros during the restart of the facility following maintenance. MOL says a fire broke out at the MOL Petrolkémia facility following the explosion. Rescue workers are continuing to extinguish the fire, and a flare is burning at the damaged pipeline.

Several fire trucks are on the scene. A mobile laboratory from the emergency services and a rescue service helicopter, as reported by eyewitnesses, have also arrived.

According to the Prime Minister, the mobile laboratory is conducting air quality measurements. As of the time of this report, no exceedances of the maximum permissible concentration of hazardous substances have been recorded.

Energy Minister István Kapitány, along with MOL CEO Zsolt Hernádi, have traveled to Tiszaújváros.

Mayor György Fülöp stated that there is currently no need for civil protection measures. According to him, local authorities are in constant contact with the heads of the disaster response service and MOL.

What is known about the plant where the explosion occurred?

The Olefin-1 petrochemical plant in Tiszaújváros is part of the MOL Group. The facility produces olefins, specifically ethylene and propylene, which are used as base materials for plastics and the chemical industry. Tiszaújváros is one of Hungary’s petrochemical hubs.

As a reminder, last year there was already an explosion at another refinery in Hungary; at that time, the AV3 unit of the Danube Oil Refinery in Százhalombatta was damaged. A large-scale fire also broke out there.