Hungarian MOL completes repairs at fire-damaged refinery

The Hungarian oil and gas company MOL has completed repair work on the AV3 crude distillation unit at the Sazhalombatt refinery. Production is scheduled to resume in October. The facility was damaged due to a fire in the autumn of 2025.

“The Danube refinery will become stronger and more flexible, giving MOL more capacity to meet demand in the country and the region,” said MOL senior vice president Christian Pulay. Now the company has begun dismantling construction equipment and preparing for the resumption of the plant.

The restoration of the facility cost MOL 18 billion Hungarian forints (about €45 million). During the year, the company’s specialists dismantled and reassembled the damaged reinforced concrete structure, restored equipment, control systems and power supply. They installed 27 new pumps, replaced 8km of pipelines, and laid 100km of electric cables.

The company intends to start gradually restarting production at the refinery in October. At this point, specialists will wash the plant systems, test equipment, connect auxiliary power supplies and coordinate the operation of the AV3 plant with other facilities of the enterprise.

The refinery in Sazhalombatt is the largest in Hungary, one of the largest in Europe. It is designed to process about 8.1 million tons of oil per year. At the end of October 2025 there was a fire. MOL attributed the cause of the fire to a failure in the operation of equipment.