The fires occurred a few hours apart. There is not yet an explanation.
The fire at MOL’s Danube Refinery, south of the capital, has been contained, the oil and gas company told Hungarian news agency MTI.
The fire broke out on Monday evening.
Nobody was injured in the fire, which is under investigation, it added.
MOL’s refinery firefighters were the first on the scene, but the alarm was also raised with several fire departments and disaster protection units in the Százhalombatta area.
Witnesses told MTI that flames and a cloud of smoke could be seen kilometres from the refinery.
Here is an amateur video of the the fire.
Interestingly, a few hours earlier, there had been an explosion at the Petrotel-Lukoil oil refinery in Romania, according to Vg.hu.
The explosion did not result in a fire, but a 57-year-old worker sustained serious leg and skull injuries in the explosion. He was taken to the intensive care unit of the local hospital.
The facility, which is operated by a Romanian subsidiary of the Russian company Lukoil, is one of Romania’s largest oil refineries, with an annual processing capacity of 2.5 million tonnes.
It is not yet clear what happened or whether the two explosions are connected.
Update
Hungary’s fuel supply is secure, a spokesperson for MOL said at a press conference on Tuesday, after a fire at its refinery south of the capital overnight.
Piroska Bakos said the fire at the Danube Refinery in Szazhalombatta had been localised. She added that an investigation of the cause of the fire, which did not result in any injuries or cause a deterioration in air quality over health thresholds, was underway.
Bakos said units at the refinery that were not affected by the fire were gradually being restarted.
MOL Group managing director Krisztian Pulay said there were no indications that the fire involved any external factors. He added that there was no connection to an explosion at a refinery in Romania.
Fielding questions, Pulay said the fire had broken out at one of three of the refinery’s distillation plants.
He dismissed reports of an explosion at the refinery and explained that gas flaring in emergency situations produced loud sounds that might be felt as an explosion by people in the vicinity.
He said the supply chain was not affected by the fire and that more information would be available after damages were assessed. He added that the plant affected by the fire was important but not “critical” to the operation of the whole refinery.
Later on Tuesday, MOL said the fire had been extinguished and production was gradually re-starting. (MTI)
