Petrom, the largest Romanian company, at the end of last year accounted for 31% of petroleum products sold through filling stations in Moldova, 18% in Bulgaria and 13% in the former Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro) through 257 filling stations, an increase from 211 at the end of 2006.
As a result Petrom's retail investments abroad amounted to around 70m euros last year, with the figure per petrol station standing at 1.5m euros.
Petrom entered the markets of Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro in early 2006, when it acquired filling station networks through which OMV, the company's majority shareholder, operated on these markets.
Practically, foreign markets are the only ones where Petrom has grown in terms of the number of filling stations. The company also announced that it intended to keep the 550 filling station domestic network at a constant level and break even in the next two years. Domestically, Petrom has relinquished around 100 filling stations to boost efficiency.
Considering, on average, an OMV filling station sells around 5 million litres of fuel each year, double the volume sold by a Petrom station, the oil company's international sales revolved around 1.1bn euros last year.
Retail sales in Moldova account for around 20% of sales posted on the Romanian market, where 3.7 million tonnes of fuel were sold last year just through filling station networks, while the remainder, 5 million tonnes, is represented by sales on the wholesale segment. Under the circumstances, retail on the Bulgarian market amounts to around 1bn euros each year.
Practically, over two years, Petrom has managed to boost its presence in Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia by around 40%.
The company's target is to reach an around 20% share both on the Bulgarian market and in the former Yugoslavia.
Another interesting market in terms of Petr
