Oil companies say long-term business development plans are going ahead in the more difficult periods as well, a reason why in the first five months, at market level, 20 new filling stations were opened, generating investments of above 14m euros and around 200 new jobs.
Despite the unfavourable market conditions in the first three months of the year, when fuel sales fell by as much as 20% in some cases, investments in the expansion of filling station networks were bigger in the case of some players. At the same time, according to them, sales are starting to rebound, with April bringing flat sold volumes from the same period of 2008.
"(...) In Q1, 2009, we invested around 4.5m euros to open 3 filling stations with areas of between 2,000 and 3,500 square metres and to equip our warehouse of Tildeag with a modern system to survey tank loading," say the representatives of MOL Romania, ranking 4th on the market with a share of around 10% and turnover worth almost 600m euros last year. Through these filling stations, the company created around 40 new jobs. In the same period of 2008, it had opened a filling station.
A similar investment situation is encountered in the case of Rompetrol, ranking 2nd on the market. "(...) The total value of investments to expand the filling station network in 2009 amounted to over 10m dollars," specified the company's representatives. By finalising these investments, the company created 110 new jobs.
Petrom in late May finalised the first two petrol stations on Autostrada Soarelui (Sun Highway - A2), of 2.6m euros, with another two new stations to emerge on the highway in the wake of similar investments.
"Last year, we added 4 new stations to our network. In 2009, we are opening 4 stations on A2, (...) with total investments to revolve around 5.2m euros," say OMV Romania representatives.
Oil companies say th
