ZAGREB (Croatia), November 17 (SeeNews) – Overall motor fuel demand in Croatia increased by 1.7% on the year in the three months to September, Hungarian oil and gas group MOL said on Tuesday.
MOL, which owns a stake of 47.15% in Croatian oil and gas company INA, said gasoline demand in Croatia grew by 3.1% in the third quarter while diesel demand recorded a marginal 1.0% increase compared to the same period of 2008, the company's interim report for January-September posted on its website indicated.
Both diesel and gasoline demand, however, increased only in Euro quality products while it decreased in all other product categories, the report said.
In Croatia, retail sales volumes increased by annual 493% in first nine months of the year, including INA’s contribution of 384 kilotonnes (kt). Croatian retail sales volumes, excluding INA, which practically means the performance of MOL-owned fuel retailer Tifon increased by 35% on the year to 108 kt through September. Tifon had a 34% increase in diesel sales and 44% growth in gasoline sales in the nine months to September.
Preliminary data shows that motor fuel demand grew slightly by 0.2% year-on-year in the central and eastern Europe (CEE) region during the third quarter. Gasoline demand increased by about 1.4%, while diesel consumption suffered a minor drop of 0.3% year-on-year.
“There are considerable differences in the demand pictures of individual countries. The largest drop in demand occurred in Slovenia and Slovakia,” the report said.
In Romania, total fuel volume sold decreased by 5.0% in first nine months compared to the same period a year earlier, primarily as a result of the lower domestic demand, it added.
The group expanded its retail network to 1,641 filling stations as of September 30, 2009, which is an increase of 565 stations compared to December 31, 2008,
mainly due to the full consolidation of INA (488 filling stations) and Bosnia's Energopetrol (42 filling stations) as of June 30, 2009.