Tomislav Micovic, Secretary General of the Association of Oil Companies of Serbia, says for RTS that in the previous six months, the country has recorded a drop in fuel consumption of 10 percent, but that the real decline is even greater.
World oil prices have started to fall again. The reasons are the higher growth of stocks in America, but also the fact that due to the new increase in the number of people suffering from coronavirus, the demand for fuel is decreasing again.
Tomislav Micovic, Secretary General of the Association of Oil Companies of Serbia, pointed out as a guest in the RTS morning program that fuel consumption is an indicator of both economic activities and the increase in the purchasing power of citizens.
“In the previous six months in Serbia, there was a drop of 10 percent, which is not a small drop, especially when it is known that the first two months of this year had an incredible increase in fuel consumption,” says Micovic.
The real decline, as he explained, is even bigger, because in that period, fuel prices were very low and everyone bought slightly larger quantities and formed their own stocks.
As for the prices in Serbia, Micovic states that they fell until May, primarily due to the fall in the price of crude oil, and since May the prices have started to rise.
“In both cases, the changes are the result of turbulence in the world oil market, where the price fell by 20 dollars per barrel, and then rose by more than 120 percent, to 40 dollars per barrel, so the price of oil stabilized between 40 and 44 dollars per barrel, which means that the supply-demand relationship is balanced,” Micovic explained.
Asked what can be expected in the next period, Micovic notes that things change from week to week.
“According to current indicators, no large increase in demand is expected even by the end of the year, and the question is what will happen next year. If 2019 is our reference year, we do not expect that consumption globally, and probably not nationally before 2022 or 2023,” stated Micovic, RTS reports.
