Austrian oil company OMV announced that a mechanical incident occurred at the Schwechat oil refinery on Friday. Shortly after the announcement, speculation has begun that due to the incident, some petrol stations that supply OMV stations in Hungary and Slovakia will be closed temporarily.
The incident occurred last Friday at the Schwechat refinery which has been undergoing its maintenance turnaround since 19 April. OMV said the incident has damaged the main distillation unit for crude oil, thus the start-up of the refinery will be partially delayed.
“A review of the extent of the damage and the duration of the shutdown is still underway. We will work closely with our customers and suppliers to mitigate any impact on product availability,” said OMV after the incident.
Later, the Hungarian Ministry of Technology and Industry issued a statement which ensured that supply is uninterrupted at Hungarian petrol stations and that Hungary has significant strategic reserves to cover domestic needs, even in an event of an emergency.
As a response to speculations, OMV clarified that they do not plan to close service stations in either Hungary or other countries.
“OMV has no plans to intentionally close filling stations in Hungary or in any other country and is doing its utmost to maintain supplies,” said OMV pointing out that its own product stock and, above all, the release of fuel reserves from the Republic of Austria will enable the company to establish alternative supply flows.
The Austrian company said it’s currently working on new supply options between OMV refineries and within its storage network, while also evaluating various mitigation options with its partners. All these measures concern finished and semi-finished products and serve to maintain the security of supply.
OMV said some areas of the refinery continue to be operational and they examine additional short-term technical adaptations to compensate for the damage.
