Doha: The economic recovery in Qatar continues to grow stronger. The sale of fuel (petrol and diesel) in the country has shown a consistent growth in the past quarters, showing acceleration in economic activity.
Retail fuel sales volume in Qatar have shown upward trend in the third quarter (July, August, September) and fourth quarter (October, November, December) of 2020.
Retail diesel sale was 192 MM liters during the second quarter of last year, which went up to 229 MM liters in the third quarter of 2020, showing a surge of around 19 percent, according to data from Qatar Fuel Company (Woqod). The share of Woqod in the petroleum retail market was about 85 percent at the end of last year.
In the next quarter (October, November, December) retail diesel sale increased to 230 MM liters, which is around 20 percent more than the sale in second quarter.
Similar rising trend was also visible in quarterly retail gasoline (petrol) volumes. Retail gasoline sale by Woqod was 370 MM liters in the second quarter of last year which increased to 536 MM liters in the third quarter of 2020, registering a rise of 45 percent. The growth momentum continued in the next quarter also as 553 MM liters during the fourth quarter, which was around 50 percent more than the sales in the second quarter.
The economic activities in Qatar had slowed down during the second quarter of last year due to restrictions imposed to limit the spread of COVID-19. People started working from home, and avoided going outside to prevent the spread of coronavirus. With government’s proactive policies, the number of infections came down which led to gradual easing of restrictions in the third and fourth quarters. This resulted in the increased in mobility and acceleration in economic activity in the country.
“The fourth quarter was significantly better than the second and the third quarter of last year. The demand for rental cars have risen by around 20 percent in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter of last year,” a senior official of car rental company told The Peninsula.
Even the annual sales of diesel have shown growth. In 2020, diesel sales increased by 8 percent compared to previous year. Last year, Woqod witnessed sale of 853 MM liters of diesel while in 2019 the sale of diesel was 791 MM liters.
Woqod has the largest share in petroleum retail market. The share of Woqod in the petroleum retail market increased by 3 percent to about 85 percent at the end of 2020 compared to the previous year (2019).
Woqod started operations in 2002 with exclusive rights for storage and distribution of petroleum products in Qatar. Its operations started with two petrol stations in 2003 and have grown to 108 stations at the end of December 2020.
