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Explosions at oil refineries in Hungary, Romania spark sabotage suspicions

21 October 2025 17:11 (UTC +04:00)

Explosions shook a Hungarian and a Romanian oil refinery on Monday, 20 October, APA reports, citing hungarianconservative.com.

Investigations are underway in both cases, and many circumstances remain unknown.

The first explosion hit the Petrotel-Lukoil refinery in Ploieşti, Romania, at about 11.30am local time on Monday. Media reports say the blast occurred in the industrial sewerage system, with the hatch of a sewerage well being ejected during maintenance work. At the time, the refinery platform was undergoing a major shutdown for repairs. The Petrotel-Lukoil plant is one of Romania’s largest oil-processing facilities and is owned by the Russian company Lukoil.

The second, similar incident occurred on Monday evening at MOL’s refinery in Százhalombatta, Hungary. Officials said the fire was contained by Tuesday morning, but operations were still suspended and investigations were continuing; the primary cause of the explosion remained unknown at the time of writing. The Százhalombatta refinery is a key node in both the Hungarian and Central European fuel networks, processing crude delivered via the Druzhba pipeline from Russia. Oil refined at Százhalombatta supplies mainly domestic markets but also, in significant quantities, Slovakia.