An extraordinary situation has developed in our environment - said Zsolt Hernádi, the president and CEO of Mol, after discussions with Gergely Gulyás, the minister in charge of the Prime Minister's Office, and Antal Rogán, the minister in charge of the Prime Minister's Office. He indicated: There is a war in Ukraine, where there is no oil refinery in operation because of this. However, Ukraine needs oil products for the war, so it does everything to be able to buy basically diesel, but also any other petroleum products, from anywhere.
The Schwechat refinery has not been operating since the middle of May, after the planned shutdown, the restart was not successful. This is not even expected before autumn. In addition, one of the two oil refineries in the Czech Republic has stopped, explained the CEO. The Száhahalombatta refinery must also be shut down for maintenance.
Zsolt Hernádi highlighted that, as a result of the sanctions, they are gradually trying to replace Russian diesel in Europe. All of this poses serious logistical problems for the oil companies and the distribution companies and intermediaries that deal with it.
At the same time, more and more coal is arriving at the ports, as the restarted coal-fired power plants are indispensable for supply. This also makes deliveries more difficult logistically. In addition, the water level of the Danube is low, which makes it increasingly difficult to import fuel even on barges, he explained.
In this situation, the government had to be warned that there could be supply problems if we could not promote imports.
If the price cap remains in its current form, no fuel will come to Hungary. There is a shortage of diesel in our country, and the Száhahalombatta refinery cannot meet the consumption demand even under normal conditions. If there are no imports, there will be interruptions in the supply - emphasized Zsolt Hernádi.
According to the president and CEO, the government took note of the information.
I asked for a decision on the matter as soon as possible. The range of beneficiaries of those using price-capped fuel must be narrowed so much that it is worthwhile for traders to import diesel or other refined products to Hungary again, he added.
Source: Hungarian Nation
Featured image: Máté Fazekas
