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Hungarian oil refinery blaze possibly caused by outside attack — PM Orban

The Hungarian prime minister noted that this oil refinery, which majors in processing Russian crude, is one of the five most important strategic industrial enterprises in Hungary

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban Alexey Maishev/POOL/TASS

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban

© Alexey Maishev/POOL/TASS

BUDAPEST, October 30. /TASS/. The Hungarian authorities do not rule out that a blaze at a MOL oil refinery, which processes Russian crude, could have been caused by an external strike, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Thursday after his meeting with Interior Minister Sandor Pinter.

"Last night, I heard a report from the interior minister regarding the incident at the oil refinery in Szazhalombatta. The investigation is in full swing. We still don't know whether it was an accident, malfunction, or an outside attack," Orban wrote on his Facebook (banned in Russia due to its ownership by Meta designated as extremist) account.

The Hungarian prime minister noted that this oil refinery, which majors in processing Russian crude, is one of the five most important strategic industrial enterprises in Hungary.

"The Polish foreign minister recently advised the Ukrainians to blow up the Druzhba oil pipeline. Let's hope that this doesn't happen," Orban continued.

"Prices on gasoline have already surged. I have instructed Economy Minister Marton Nagy to hold talks with the management of MOL enterprise and make it clear to them that the company must not compensate for lost profits at the expense of consumers by raising gasoline prices," the Hungarian premier added.

A blaze at the refinery in Szazhalombatta (in the Pest County), located about 30 kilometers (some 19 miles) south of the country’s capital of Budapest on the banks of the Danube River, erupted on October 21 overnight. Production output at this facility, which for the most part processes Russian crude and then supplies central European countries with gasoline, has been reduced.

Details of the incident are under investigation, however suspicions regarding an act of sabotage immediately emerged after Ukraine previously carried out several attacks on the infrastructure of the Druzhba oil pipeline using missiles and drones in order to impede supplies of raw materials from Russia to Hungary and Slovakia.

Kiev, together with Brussels, is trying to get Budapest and Bratislava to abandon the use of Russian oil and gas by enterprises of the two central European states.

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