Fuel consumption on the corporate segment fell by more than 10 percent in this year’s first half, the President of the MOL Romania oil company, the local subsidiary of the Hungarian oil and gas group and the fourth local retailer, Zsolt Szalay, said yesterday.
He added that fuel consumption on the retail segment had a single-digit drop rate compared to the first six months of 2008. “Last year, the leaded gas was taken off the market, so results on H1 2009 can be distorted by the lack of this product, compared to last year’s same period,” the official said.
Szalay estimated a slight rebound in fuel consumption in the second half of this year, due to the touristic season. “Consumption will continue to slide compared to last year’s second half, but by less than in the first half of the year,” MOL Romania’s President said.
The Deputy General Manager of LukOil Romania, Andrei Chirilescu, said that the 10 percent drop is valid only for this year’s first quarter. “In Q2, the decline was lower, of less than four percent. If we make an average, we get a drop of up to seven percent year-on-year,” Chirilescu told Business Standard yesterday. The official of LukOil, the third-largest oil company locally, said that the third quarter will post stagnation compared to Q3 2008.
