One fatality, several injuries reported.
Explosion during Olefin 1 plant restart.
MOL shares declined 1.9%.
Atlas AI
An explosion struck Hungarian oil and gas group MOL’s petrochemical plant in Tiszaújváros, eastern Hungary, on Friday, May 22, 2026, killing one person and injuring several others, the company said. The incident happened during the restart of the Olefin 1 plant, a steam cracker unit with an annual production capacity of about 370,000 metric tons of ethylene. Firefighters brought the blaze under control and an investigation is under way, MOL said.
Economy Minister Istvan Kapitany said a compressor exploded during the restart. He said one of the injured suffered life-threatening respiratory burns and seven others had minor burns.
The injured were taken to hospitals in Debrecen and Miskolc, Kapitany said.
Plant operations and investigation
MOL said the fire was localized by firefighters and response work continued at the site. The company did not provide further details on the cause of the explosion, saying experts were investigating the circumstances of the accident.
The Olefin 1 unit is part of MOL’s petrochemical complex in Tiszaújváros, which includes steam-cracker capacity used to produce ethylene. MOL uses most of its ethylene internally to manufacture polyethylene plastics sold to the plastics and packaging industries.
Market reaction
MOL shares were down 1.9% after the incident, underperforming the wider market in Budapest.
Officials said updates were expected as the investigation progresses and the site assessment continues.
