MOL Romania saw its market share shrink after selling 30 filling stations, but managed to increase its profit.

The domestic unit of Hungary's oil group MOL, the fourth-largest company on the domestic oil market, closed the first six months of the year with turnover worth 255m euros, lower than last year's level, but registered a 6% higher profit against the first half of 2006. The company's evolution corresponds with the trajectory of Rompetrol, the oil group led by Dinu Patriciu, which for the first 6 months of the year reported a decline in turnover of 8% on the domestic market, to the level of around 700m euros, whilst managing to step into the black. Rompetrol Rafinare recorded net income worth 11.4m euros.

In comparison, unlike MOL and Rompetrol, the Russian Lukoil group posted 52% higher turnover in the first half of the year, up to 602m euros. Petrom's figures for H1 have not been released yet, but in the first half the company coped with a dramatic slump in income.

Regarding MOL, the fall in turnover was triggered by the filling station exchange operated last year with Petrom, the biggest Romanian company within the portfolio of OMV Austrian group, through which the Hungarians sold 30 filling stations to Petrom and purchased 11, receiving a cash difference for the remaining stations. Basically, the network relinquished 19 stations, which translates as the company giving up around 14% of its initial number of filling stations.

According to the 6-month report released by MOL Hungary, the market share held by the Romanian unit narrowed by 1.2% to a level of 11.7% amid the exchanges with Petrom. At the same time, in the first half, the company saw its fuel sales on the Romanian market fall by 3.8% compared with the same period last year, as the network's size was reduced.

Nevertheless, the average sales volume per sta