Following an invitation by the chairman of the National Petroleum Committee of Serbia (NPCS), Prof. Slobodan Sokolovic, IENE’s Executive Director, Mr. Costis Stambolis participated as keynote speaker in the one day workshop organised by the Committee in Belgrade, on May 15Following an invitation by the chairman of the National Petroleum Committee of Serbia (NPCS), Prof. Slobodan Sokolovic, IENE’s Executive Director, Mr. Costis Stambolis participated as keynote speaker in the one day workshop organised by the Committee in Belgrade, on May 15. All major oil retail companies of Serbia are members of the Committee. The scope of the workshop was to examine the state of the oil market in Serbia and in neighbouring countries.
In his presentation, which was entitled "The Petroleum Products Market in SE Europe: Basic Trends and Outlook”, Mr. Stambolis referred to the whole chain of oil marketing including refining. The refining, storage, transportation and distribution of oil products as he said constitutes a major economic activity for most countries in SE Europe. In his presentation the Executive Director of IENE presented an overview of the petroleum product market in SE Europe focusing on demand and consumption characteristics and trends in the different geographical areas. These include the West Balkans, the East Balkans, the East Mediterranean and Turkey. In order to understand and forecast market behaviour, Mr. Stambolis stressed that an elementary analysis is necessary of crude oil imports, indigenous oil production, refining and storage capacity, transportation and distribution activity.
Factors such environmental considerations and guidelines, the maintenance of obligatory stocks, the transportation of refined products through pipeline networks and the adherence to strict safety standards throughout the petroleum distribution chain, including the operation of pump stations were taken into considerations. Information was also provided on current and anticipated investments in the midstream and downstream oil sector per country for the whole SE European region. Finally, certain conclusions were drawn concerning the performance and outlook of the petroleum product market in the SE European region and how this is compared to developments in the main European markets.
