Shell Hungary has decided to temporarily shut down five refuelling stations in Hungary from 1 August amid fuel supply shortages and high sales volumes on the regional market.
The company says that skyrocketing demand combined with supply shortage on the regional fuel market poses serious challenges to the industry. To ensure more efficient network operation and labour management, Shell decided to temporarily suspend the operation of five refuelling stations across Hungary. The company underlined that the measures will help to maintain security of supply in the current market conditions.
Last November the Hungarian government introduced a cap on fuel prices that started to rose in the midst of an energy crisis and maintained the measures after Russia invaded Ukraine. The measures, that shield consumers from high fuel prices are set to run until October.
Hungary’s oil and gas company MOL which owns the largest network of service stations has already called for the fuel price cap to be phased out and warned of possible fuel supply problems unless there are measures to boost fuel imports. The company’s Danube refinery went under maintenance on Monday, further reducing the supply of fuel on the domestic market.
Last week, the Hungarian government introduced new measures that would narrow eligibility for price-capped petrol and diesel to privately-owned vehicles, farm vehicles and taxis, and would exclude company-owned cars and free up a quarter of its strategic fuel reserves to help ensure supplies.
