A fire erupted late Monday at the AV3 processing unit of MOL Group’s Danube Refinery in Százhalombatta, Hungary, which processes about 165 000 barrels of crude per day—most of it Russian-sourced via the Druzhba pipeline.

Though no external tampering was officially detected, the incident has forced unit shutdowns and triggered damage assessment protocols. The refinery supplies a significant portion of Hungary’s fuel demand, and units are now restarting gradually while authorities evaluate production impact. Analysts state that even short-term disruptions at centrally positioned refineries like Danube can reverberate across downstream supply chains in Central Europe. Given that the unit processes more than 40 % of the plant’s crude intake, prolonged outage could tighten petrol and diesel availability domestically and in neighbouring states.

The event underscores Europe’s refining vulnerability amid changing supply routes and procedural delays in maintenance response.