A fatal blast at a petrochemical facility in eastern Hungary has claimed one life and left several workers with serious injuries, according to company officials who released details Friday.
The deadly incident took place at MOL’s industrial complex in Tiszaujvaros, where Hungarian oil and gas group MOL operates major chemical production operations.
Prime Minister Peter Magyar announced on Facebook that economy minister Istvan Kapitany and MOL’s executive chairman Zsolt Hernadi were traveling to the facility. Magyar shared an image displaying massive dark smoke pouring from the industrial site.
“An explosion occurred at MOL Petrochemicals’ site in Tiszaújváros during the restart of the Olefin 1 plant. The fire was localised by firefighters, and the intervention is still ongoing,” MOL said.
Company officials stated that investigators are examining what led to the deadly incident, though they declined to provide additional information about the circumstances.
Kapitany wrote on Facebook that preliminary reports indicate a compressor unit exploded while workers were bringing the Olefin 1 facility back online, and emergency crews were still working to extinguish the blaze.
The affected Olefin 1 facility operates as a steam cracker unit within MOL’s larger petrochemical complex in Tiszaujvaros. This particular plant can produce roughly 370,000 metric tons of ethylene annually. The Tiszaujvaros site houses two steam cracking facilities with combined ethylene production capacity of 660,000 metric tons yearly, based on MOL’s corporate website.
The company primarily uses its ethylene production for creating polyethylene plastics, which are then distributed to plastics and packaging manufacturers.
