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NeWS – eURoPe
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Medvedev orders
clampdown
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has
ordered the head of Russia’s anti-monopoly
service (FAS) to closely monitor retail
vehicle fuel prices, with any baseless
increases met with swift legal measures.
The Energy Ministry said: “The recent rise
in excise duty on fuel products should not
lead to a one-off ‘shock’ rise in gasoline
and diesel prices.” A series of measures
were taken in 2011 aimed at stabilizing
the domestic fuel market. High-octane
gasoline for the domestic market rose
7.3 percent and winter diesel fuel 5 percent.
Fuel stocks at oil refineries and oil
depots last year almost doubled from
2010. Fuel shortages occurred in Russia
last year after oil companies suspended
deliveries complaining that pressure from
government to hold down retail prices
made sales less profitable in the country
than selling abroad.
eU directive comes
into effect
On 1st January 2012, the EU directive
(2009/126/EC) on vapour recovery became
effective. This directive tightens
the recovery efficiency, definings a maximum
allowed deviation of +/- 5 percent.
Monitoring is optional, but the mandatory
inspection interval can be increased from
once every two years to every third year
when a monitoring system is installed. The
requirements in this directive are for new
or refurbished stations. It affects stations
with a throughput exceeding 500 m³ per
year, or 100 m³ if it is located under a
building. Existing service stations with
a throughput in excess of 3 000 m³ per
year are required to be equipped with
vapour recovery systems by no later than
31st December 2018. Where a monitoring
system is included, there will typically
be a requirement to integrate this with
the POS system.
NIS opens petrol
stations in bulgaria
Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS) plans
to buy 20 petrol stations in Bulgaria, Serbian
newspapers report. According to NIS
deputy general director Nicolaus Petri the
company plans to buy petrol stations in
Romania as well. He said, “NIS wanted
to set up a chain of 80 petrol stations in
Bulgaria in the next two years”.
PKN orlen may join with Lotos
The sale of Lotos Group, Poland’s second-largest
refiner is slow and final bids were due by 20th
December. But many expect the process will end
without a winner, speculation is rising that the
government will return to its time-worn formula of
trying to join Lotos with its larger state controlled
rival, PKN Orlen. Press reports have citied four
bidders shortlisted for Lotos, which has a refinery
LAteSt NeWS, eveNtS, JobS oNLINe – WWW.PetRoLPLAzA.CoM
in northern Poland, a network of petrol stations
and some extraction on the Baltic Sea: Russian
TNK-BP, Hungary’s MOL, Mercuria Energy and
Burgan Capital Investment of the UAE. The
likeliest partners are thought to be Russian oil
majors, as Lotos may make a decent fit into their
central European strategy – but investments by
Russia are still regarded with suspicion.
tAtNeFt station network in belarus
The first filling station of TATNEFT in the
Republic of Belarus has opened and construction
of the second filling station was
completed. Both are now operational and at
this time construction and installation works
were approaching completion and preparing
for commissioning of six other stations.
Motorists are offered high-quality gasoline,
diesel fuel & gas and plans envisage opening
Imaging innovation talk of ‘new petroleum age’
One of the world’s leading energy companies,
Norway’s Statoil ASA, has gone public with a
scientific innovation that it says will drastically
reduce the costs and risks of discovering new
deposits of fossil fuels. Already employed by
Statoil worldwide over the past few years, the
technique especially improves the odds of
finding oil and gas in unexplored regions that
have never felt the bite of a drill’s bit, said Helge
optima considers buying oMv units
Bosnia’s Optima is interested in taking over
Austrian oil and gas group OMV AG’s petrol
stations in Croatia and Bosnia as part of plans
to expand across the Balkans. Jurij Belov, the
General Manager of Optima Group, which
operates Bosnia’s sole oil refinery Brod and
the Nestro petrol retail chain, said regional
expansion was one its strategic goals. “We
are very interested in entering the Croatian
shops soon. Additional equipment installed
at the fuel-dispenser allows processing bank
and fuel cards. Irek Gafiyatullin, Director of
“Tatbelnefteprodukt”, the TATNEFT company’s
regional structure, noted that the new station
had been equipped with foreign equipment
and all the instrumentation had been produced
in Belarus. 21 new job positions have been
created thanks to Tatarstan’s investor.
Løseth, one of the Statoil geologists behind
the innovation, published in last Decembers
issue of the journal Geology. Everywhere, he
said, “you increase the likelihood of striking
oil quite significantly”. Independent geologists
expect Statoil’s seismic leap, while perhaps not
exclusive to the company, will ripple through
the industry, becoming a standard tool over
the next few years.
market and taking over OMV’s retail chain
there, as well as in Bosnia.” OMV operates
63 retail units in Croatia and holds a 13 percent
market share there, while in Bosnia it
runs 13 units and has an 8 percent market
share. Optima Group, owned by Russian
firm Neftegazinkor, a unit of state-run Zarubezhneft,
has a retail network of 88 petrol
stations in Bosnia.
No postponement for mandatory level gauges
Bulgarian filling station owners will get no
postponement for installing mandatory level
gauges, said Rosen Bachvarov, Spokesperson
of the National Revenue Agency (NRA)
on Monday. Industry representatives have
warned that the requirement to mount the
equipment by end – March will lead to the
Lithuania’s vakoil turnover almost doubles
Vakoil, the Lithuanian chain of petrol stations,
boosted its turnover by about 96 percent to
25.7 million litas (7.33 million euros) over
the first nine months of the year 2011. The
growth of the turnover was determined by new
forced closure of thousands of filling stations,
leaving 4 000 workers unemployed. “We
remain open to dialogue on the technical
requirements”, Bachvarov said. Since taking
office we have already uncovered some
24 million leva in hidden turnover amid
falling fuel consumption.
contracts with more than 160 companies, the
company’s head Povilas Ugianskis said. In the
third quarter of 2011 the turnover of Vakoil
totalled 9 million litas (2.56 million euros),
an annual increase of 50 percent year-on-year.