Hungary MOL Plant Blast Kills One, Injures Seven
An explosion at Hungarian oil and gas company MOL Group’s petrochemical facility in Tiszaújváros, eastern Hungary, killed one worker and seriously injured seven others on Friday, May 22. The blast struck during the restart of the Olefin 1 plant unit, according to Reuters. Emergency services reached the site within minutes and have since contained the fire.
MOL confirmed the incident in a written statement released on Friday morning. “An explosion occurred at MOL Petrochemicals’ site in Tiszaújváros during the restart of the Olefin 1 plant,” the company said. “The fire was localised by firefighters, and the intervention is still ongoing.”
The explosion occurred at approximately 8:47 a.m. local time, according to Hungarian Economy and Energy Minister István Kapitány, who confirmed the time via Facebook shortly after the incident. Kapitány said a compressor blew during the restart sequence of the Olefin 1 unit and that firefighting was still active when he posted his update. He later added that one of the seriously injured had suffered life-threatening airway burns and had been airlifted to the University of Debrecen, as reported by Debrecen Sun.
Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced the deaths and injuries on Facebook at around 9:30 a.m. and posted a photograph showing thick black smoke rising above the plant. Magyar said Kapitány and MOL Group’s executive chairman Zsolt Hernádi were both travelling to the site.
Hungary’s disaster management agency deployed large numbers of industrial firefighters to the scene alongside professional crews from Tiszaújváros and Miskolc, Hungarian Conservative reported. Emergency teams used water cannons and foam jets from multiple directions to extinguish the blaze and cool affected systems, authorities said. A mobile laboratory unit was also dispatched to monitor air quality at and around the site.
The mobile lab found no hazardous substance concentrations above permissible limits, Kapitány confirmed. Local disaster management authorities told residents through social media that the explosion posed no threat to the surrounding population, according to CEENERGYNEWS.
MOL confirmed the death of one employee and said the company regarded the deceased as one of its own. “On behalf of the MOL Group, we express our sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased,” the company said in a separate statement, adding that several workers sustained serious injuries and that an expert investigation into the cause was underway.
The remaining injured workers were transported to hospitals in Debrecen and Miskolc, Kapitány announced on Facebook.
MOL shares fell 1.9% on the Budapest Stock Exchange on Friday, underperforming the broader market, Reuters reported.
Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok issued a public statement expressing shock at the explosion. “I was deeply shocked to learn of the explosion that occurred at the MOL plant in Tiszaújváros,” Sulyok wrote on Facebook. “My sincere condolences to the family of the deceased, and I wish a speedy recovery to the injured.” Former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also extended condolences to the victim’s family via social media. Health Minister Zsolt Hegedűs thanked emergency responders, healthcare workers, and disaster management teams for their rapid and professional response, according to Debrecen Sun.
MOL’s Tiszaújváros complex is one of the largest petrochemical sites in Central Europe. The facility houses two steam crackers with a combined ethylene production capacity of approximately 660,000 tonnes per year, according to Global Banking and Finance. The Olefin 1 unit — the one directly involved in Friday’s blast — is a steam cracker used to produce ethylene, a core feedstock in plastics manufacturing. The wider complex also includes downstream plastics production, a synthetic rubber facility, and a polyol plant that opened in 2024, CEENERGYNEWS reported.
Steam cracker restarts are among the most operationally sensitive phases in petrochemical production, as units are brought back to high temperatures and pressures after maintenance shutdowns. Local media outlet Tiszaújváros Krónika reported, based on preliminary information, that the explosion involved a pyro-gasoline pipeline connected to the unit. MOL has not confirmed this detail, and its official investigation remains ongoing.
The incident drew immediate attention from Hungary’s top leadership. Having both the economy minister and the executive chairman of MOL travel directly to the plant within hours reflects the scale of concern around a facility that plays a central role in Hungary’s industrial output and energy supply chain.
MOL Group is Hungary’s dominant integrated oil, gas, and petrochemicals company, with operations across Central and Eastern Europe. The Tiszaújváros site sits in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County in the country’s northeast and is one of MOL Petrochemicals’ primary production hubs. The company has faced prior incidents at other sites, including a fire at MOL’s Danube refinery whose cause authorities later identified, though that incident is separate from Friday’s explosion.
MOL said its experts are actively investigating the circumstances of Friday’s explosion. Kapitány pledged to release further information throughout the day as facts became available. Authorities have not announced any timeline for restarting the Olefin 1 unit or provided details on the extent of structural damage to the plant. Air quality monitoring at the site is continuing, with the mobile laboratory remaining on-site.
