The Austrian group OMV overhauled parts of a refinery near Vienna for around one and a half months. Significant problems arise when the system is restarted. Fixing them will take time. Now the state has to step in.
After a mechanical incident at the Schwechat refinery, the Viennese oil, gas and chemicals group OMV is preparing for lengthy repairs. In order to ensure security of supply, the Austrian state has stepped in and released fuel reserves, as the Chancellery in Vienna announced. “We act quickly and release part of the reserve so that there can be no bottlenecks,” said Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer. The security of supply is secured despite the incident.
Hungarian media reports that OMV could close petrol stations in Hungary because of the accident were rejected by the company. “No, that’s not the case,” said spokesman Andreas Rinofner. “The Hungarian market is essential for us and will continue to be supplied.” OMV has around 200 filling stations in Hungary.
In order to secure the supply, Austria is now providing 112,000 tons of diesel and 56,000 tons of petrol from the fuel reserve. According to Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler, additional petrol and diesel will be made available for 14 days. The reserve stored in the country is reduced by six days, it said.
OMV estimates that the investigation in the refinery near Vienna will take several days. “The extent of the damage and the duration of the repairs are still unclear, but we are assuming that the repair phase will be longer,” said Rinofner. We are working flat out to compensate for the missing capacity. “We have a supply problem because of the incident at the refinery and we have to solve it now.”
On the one hand, all options within the group with the inventories and the Burghausen refineries in Germany and Petrobrazi in Romania would be examined. On the other hand, one looks at whether one can be supplied by partners in the respective markets. In addition, short-term changes would be made within the refinery to increase capacity somewhat.
The accident happened in the main distillation plant of the refinery. There, crude oil is distilled to produce petrol or diesel. The plant has been overhauled since April 19th and has been idle. When starting up, a pressure test was carried out, which resulted in a water leak, which caused considerable damage to the system, the spokesman said. Two people were slightly injured in the accident.
