Lukoil Romania, one of the biggest distributors of fuel on the domestic market, with turnover revolving around 1.5 billion euros, says April was the first respite for the sales of petroleum products, after sales had declined by as much as 20% in the previous months.

A slight rebound of the constructions sector, as well as the start of the agricultural works have driven the company’s sales back to where they were in April 2008.

The representatives of Lukoil Romania, however, maintain their pessimistic estimates for this year, when the sales drop could reach 5-6% compared with 2008.

"In January we had our sales volume go down by about 20% compared with the same time last year. In February it was down by about 12% and in March we managed to catch up a bit, but we still ended with a 4.5% decline compared with March last year. In April, however, we are at the same level as last year and we hope to keep this zero decline for the coming months, too. Anyway, it is very hard to say if this is how things will turn out," says Andrei Chirilescu, deputy chief executive of Lukoil Romania.

He says that the sales rebound is a result of certain sectors that have seen business pick up a bit.

"Agricultural works started that require a lot of diesel oil and the construction sector has rebounded a little. Anyway, it is impossible to forecast now how long this sales rebound will last," the Lukoil Romania representative explained.

Chirilescu says that the decline of the first few months of 2009 will not be possible to offset this year, and the sales volume of the company will most likely be lower by some 5-6% than in 2008.

"We’ve seen decline both on the retail and on the wholesale segments, though the retail decline was lower. The consumers who pay with cash at the filling stations have not significantly cut their spending on fuel. The decline comes