"The supply situation in Hungary is critical: the shortage of imports and panic buying is a very serious transport organization and scheduling challenge for us," the letter said.
MOL has to distribute less fuel among several partners and customers, and the lost imports have to be made up from the Bratislava refinery, which also uses MOL's transport capacity. They write that technical problems at the Danube refinery have been solved, but they still need time to reach full production capacity and to catch up on logistics.
"In order to meet the registered orders already received and to be able to deliver the fuel needed for basic operations to all parts of the country, we need to introduce a transitional measure," they say.
This means that partners will have to go to one of MOL's sites to collect the fuel themselves if they have not already placed an order and would like to receive it sooner. The next time it will be possible to place a new order is next Monday, if someone wants MOL to deliver the fuel.
Orders placed so far are being fulfilled on an ongoing basis, but MOL asked partners to be patient. They are also asking partners to be ready for late pick-ups if the tanker truck only arrives at night.
"In case the unloading of the goods fails, we do not know when we will be able to attempt the delivery again," the letter says.
György Bacsa, MOL's managing director, explained, "MOL is doing everything it can: our tanker trucks are delivering around the clock, our staff are constantly filling up the gas stations, and our technicians are working to gradually restart the entire Danube Refinery after completing maintenance work on the previously malfunctioning plant,"
Bacsa said that MOL was making up for the shortfall in production with imports – one in four liters of diesel came from Slovakia in November – but that the company had reached the limits of its logistical capacity.
"We simply cannot physically import more than that," he noted.
According to Telex's report, panic buying at refueling stations has kicked in over the past few days, after several places ran out of officially priced fuel days ago, and motorists then bought up the more expensive types in many places as well.
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