Tupras is selling roughly the same amount of gasoline as it was a year ago, but sales of diesel are about 5% lower than in 2008, recovering from a bigger drop earlier this year, according to the company’s CEO Yavuz Erkut, cited by Sabah newspaper.
Our view:
The Turkish fuel market is mainly driven by diesel as the product represents approximately 80% of the total fuel sales in the country. Thus it seems that there was a 4% y/y drop in the total fuel consumption in Turkey in 1H09, which compares to a more moderate 1% y/y drop in fuel consumption in CEE. On the top of that refining margins in the Mediterranean region were hit severely in 2Q09, which implies a weak set of results for Tupras for the period.