Fire at Hungary's only oil refinery, damage unknown yet, domestic supply of refined products remains safe

HUNGARY - In Brief 21 Oct 2025 by Istvan Racz

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Last night, a serious fire broke out at Dunai Kőolajfinomító (DUFI), Hungary's only oil refinery. DUFI is owned by MOL Group, a publicly-traded company, in which the government owns a controlling stake. According to MOL, the fire affected the biggest one out of the refinery's three distillation units, which receives over one third of DUFI's crude oil intake. The whole refinery was turned down when the fire broke out, of course. The fire has been put out by the afternoon hours today. Damages are currently unknown as those can only be assessed properly after the affected technology has cooled down. MOL is planning to gradually restart production at the unaffected parts of the refinery. The pictures and videos taken on the site resembled the look of a number of recent cases at oil refineries attacked by drones in the war between Ukraine and Russia, but no suspected link or any type of terrorism has been officially reported or hinted. It is unclear at this point, over what time period the damaged unit can be fixed and restarted. However, MOL claims there is no supply threat, because of existing inventories. The refinery itself has a one-month reserve, and the country's strategic reserves reach the equivalent of three months' consumption. This means that there are inventories of crude and refined products, so gasoline, diesel, etc. alike. MOL is a highly profitable company, which can make even sizeable investments out of its own cash flow. It is also heavily taxed, but those taxes are passed on to consumers. So it is most likely that the currently unknown cost of repair will affect MOL's ability to pay taxes and the government's ability to collect dividends from the company...