The fuel market is expected to attain 1.7 million tonnes this year, Emil Kostourkov, Deputy Sales Director of LUKoil Bulgaria, said yesterday at a seminar in Sunny Beach about production and sale of oil products.
Bulgarian fuel market amounted to 1.38 million tonnes in 2006 and 1.48 million tonnes in 2007. Kostourkov said that what was the trouble was that no excise duty iwas paid on around 30 per cent of those fuels. Some years ago, the grey sector exceeded 50 per cent. Despite growing sales of fuel, LUKoil Bulgaria has noticed that gas stations sell less because of their greater number and the grey sector.
Relatively small owners hold 2,300 gas stations, which report a bare 30 per cent market share. As to the big retail chains, Petrol has 383 filling stations, LUKoil Bulgaria - 184, Shell 84 and OMV 23. Market shares of these companies are as follows: LUKoil Bulgaria 20 per cent, OMV and Shell 17 per cent each, and Petrol 16 per cent.
Huge competition among nine oil refineries, all located within 700 kilometers, restrain fuel prices in Bulgaria. The diesel oil is higher priced because it is more in demand than the petrol, and any certain amount of oil give in three times more petrol than diesel oil which accounts for 43.8 per cent of Bulgarian fuel market. A95 petrol is next with 31.7 per cent, liquefied petroleum gas 17.2 per cent, A98 petrol 4 per cent and falling, and methane gas 3.3 per cent.
Retail fuel prices have gone up by nearly 20 per cent since the beginning of the year.
LUKoil Bulgaria Director General Valentin Zlatev told journalists that the current price of fuels was breaking the economy. He explained that excise duty of 24 per cent and VAT of 20 per cent were among the highest rates in the EU, while incomes in Bulgaria ranked among the lowest, and GDP per capita was three times lower than the EU average. For instance, a German works an hour to buy 5 liters of petrol in Germany and 7 liters in Bulgaria while a Bulgarian buys one liter of petrol with an hour's pay, Zlatev said. While he denied forecasting oil prices, he said that 145-150 dollars per barrel seemed a logical price.
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