SOCAR Petroleum, the company Azerbaijan’s SOCAR uses to operate in Romania, had grown to 34 stations in Romania by early June, the latest of which opened in Pitesti, its website says.
NIS Petroleum, the local subsidiary of Serbian NIS oil group controlled by Russia’s Gazprom, had reached 18 stations last summer and has since not provided any official information about expansion in Romania. NIS Petroleum gas stations are branded Gazprom.
In 2011, when SOCAR started expansion in the Romanian fuel retail sector, its officials said the plan was to grow to 300 stations in three years, as many as Russia’s Lukoil had in the country, for instance. The years after the announcement were not the best for fuel sales, though, with Romanian consumers regaining appetite for driving their cars as late as after the drop in fuel prices last year.
NIS, too, had big plans for expansion in Romania, aiming for a more than 10% share of the fuel market after 2015. To achieve the goal, it should have had about 130 stations by now.
The financial problems of its majority owner, Gazprom, might be behind the tempered enthusiasm for expansion on the part of NIS.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)