SOCAR opens new filling stations in Romania
By Nigar Orujova
Azerbaijan's State Oil Company has put into operation the first filling station in the Romanian city of Valchea, SOCAR reported.
The total number of SOCAR filling stations in eleven districts of Romania reached 29.
Earlier, Head of SOCAR's Romanian office Hamza Karimov said SOCAR plans to increase the number of its filling stations in Romania.
The arrangements are being made to identify new places to increase the number of filling stations.
Azerbaijan's energy giant SOCAR entered the Romanian market by buying local filling stations from Romtranspetrol and re-branding them in 2011. To become one of the most important players in fuel distribution in northeast Romania, SOCAR plans to bring the number of its gas stations in Romania to 100.
SOCAR - which is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad - is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan.
As the only oil producer in Azerbaijan, SOCAR exported nearly 1.04 million tonnes of oil from its own refineries in 2013, compared to more than 1.24 million tonnes in 2012. In total last year, Azerbaijan produced 5.09 million tonnes of the main petroleum products.
Currently, the company owns some gas stations in Azerbaijan, Switzerland, Georgia and Ukraine.
It has representative offices in Georgia, Turkey, Romania, Austria, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Britain, Iran, Germany and Ukraine, and trading companies in Switzerland, Singapore, Vietnam, Nigeria, and other countries.
The conditions were created for observing the Azerbaijani culture, culinary traditions, and tourism at SOCAR filling stations.
Moreover, SOCAR plans to expand the network of its filling stations in Georgia. The company is expected to put into operation some 15-20 new filling stations.
Currently, SOCAR has 114 filling stations in the country, 20 of which are gas filling stations.