BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov.4
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR has sold five gas stations in Ukraine, said Igor Orlov, retail trade director at SOCAR Energy Ukraine, Trend reports.
“As for the construction and development of filling stations, of course, the dates for launching facilities have shifted. Also during this period of time, we sold five of our gas stations. But it has nothing to do with the quarantine. We have planned optimization back in 2015-2016. These filling stations located in the Nikolaev region, on the highway are very unprofitable. We tried different options with the assortment, added new products, but, unfortunately, the traffic dropped so much that these filling stations became unprofitable. Therefore, we have been dealing with the sale or lease of these complexes for about 2 years. These filling stations were sold to BRSM-Nafta,” he said.
Orlov noted that the cost of fuel is highly dependent on many factors, such as the dollar exchange rate, the oil price and the company's operating costs.
“The prices were quite stable in 2020. I predict the same trend will continue until the end of the year. I can say with confidence that regardless of the exchange rate and oil prices, SOCAR will sell fuel only from the Orlen company, Lithuanian fuel of European quality. We have been working with this company for 10 years and do not plan to change the supplier,” added Orlov.
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