Profit up despite lower turnover for most oil companies in 2009

The most important oil companies operating on the Romanian market ended the first year of crisis, which saw sold fuel volumes drop by around 6% domestically, relatively well. Thus, most of them had more money in their accounts at the end of 2009 than in the years of market growth. What was the secret? Rompetrol Downstream, the retail unit of Rompetrol oil company, says it managed to sell 5% more petrol and diesel oil last year, but increases were not triggered by the retail segment, but the wholesale one. Under the circumstances, the company boosted its sales team, thus increasing volumes distributed to large final clients. For other players, such as Petrom, the large network and low prices made the difference during the crisis, with commercial sales suffering in their case. While they posted different trends along market segments, most players registered similar financial results dynamics, with falling turnovers, but rising profits owing to cost cutting steps.