MOL: We're increasing processing levels, but panic-buying is a problem
MOL, Hungary’s oil and gas company, has begun to gradually increase the level of crude oil processing at the Dunube Refinery in Hungary. Reaching maximum capacity is expected to take a few weeks, the company announced.
MOL carried out the planned shutdown of the Danube facility in the first half of October 2022. During the restart process, it became clear that additional maintenance was required at the Mild Hydrocrack–Hydrogen Desulphurisation (MHC–HDS) plant and other plants as well.
After completion of these maintenance works, the MHCK–HDS plant was restarted. As a result, MOL began to gradually increase the level of crude oil processing. Reaching maximum capacity is expected to take several weeks.
MOL remains committed to the safe supply of its product markets, reads a company statement. However, fully supplying the market is not possible without increasing the level of import volumes in the current environment. The price of MOL shares responded to the favourable news with a 1.5% increase within minutes, Vilaggazdasag reported.
Otto Grad, the secretary general of the Hungarian Petroleum Association, tried to reassure everyone even before the company’s announcement that the technical glitch that occurred earlier has now been fixed, the capacity of the refinery will continue to increase, and within a few days it will return to 100% production capacity.
The specialist believes that some related problems still remain, as imports – the other key component of supply- are still missing. Thus, as long as panic -buying continues at this rate, and official price regulation remains in place, MOL will not be able to satisfy domestic needs.
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