Turkey's fuel oil market has been unaffected by lower oil prices, according to head of petroleum department of Turkish energy market watchdog on Friday.
'Fallen oil prices didn’t make a significant change on the fuel oil market. At the end of 2013, Turkey had 77 distribution companies for fuel oil, this number is now 80,' Abdullah Ince told the press in Istanbul, adding this amount would have increased significantly if oil prices had affected the market as anticipated.
'Generally speaking, there is no significant decrease or increase in this sector. In the short-term, we can say there has been no change,' Ince said.
At the end of 2013, Turkey had 12,636 fueling stations, but no negative impact was seen in the March 2015 figure when it rose to 12,948.
Energy Market Regulatory Authority, EMRA, said in a press release in February in order to regulate gasoline and diesel oil pricing, 'ceiling prices' would be applied to protect consumers and to regulate profit margins of fuel distributors and dealers in Turkey.
EMRA will monitor the compliance of the new ceiling price rule with a new methodology for profit margins in accordance with European market pricing. The new methodology came into effect on Nov. 7, 2014.
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency
murat.temizer@aa.com.tr