Qatar Fuel (Woqod), the main distributor of retail petroleum products in Qatar, has unveiled its aggressive plans to increase the number of fuel dispensers, both for light and heavy vehicles, aiming to further ease congestion at fuel stations and boost sales.
The company, as part of its longer-term business strategy, is working to increase the number of fuel dispensers to 1,032 by 2022 from 477 in 2018, which will be more than double (116 percent jump) compared to 2018 numbers.
The number of Light Vehicle Dispensers (which are low speed) will increase from 419 in 2018 to 891 by 2022, which will be more than 112 percent from the existing capacity. And the number of Heavy Vehicle Dispensers (high speed) will be increased to 141 by 2022, registering an increase of 143 percent compared to 58 in 2018, according to figures provided by the Company in its Annual Report 2018.
“Woqod has aggressive plans to increase its retail fuel market share to 85 percent by 2022. As the end of 2018, Woqod’s retail fuel market share increased by 12 percent (70 percent in 2018 against 58 percent in 2017) driven by the opening of the new (petrol) stations. The Company is planning to build another 30 stations in 2019 and increase the number of fuel dispensers to ease congestion at the petrol stations,” said the Report.
Woqod opened 32 new petrol stations in 2018, which helped significantly increase the number of dispensers across the country, and with the opening of the upcoming 30 new petrol stations, the total number of dispensers will reach at 752 (both for heavy and light vehicles).
The Company currently runs 84 petrol stations (including 19 mobile stations) across the country, which is expected to increase to 114 by 2019 (96 fixed petrol stations and 18 mobile stations). Woqod’s fixed petrol stations offer several integrated services such as lube and tire change facilities, manual and automatic car wash, convenient stores (Sidra) and vehicle inspection centres (Fahes) at some select few stations.
Woqod is streamlining its commercial business to boost its sales and profitability for the benefit of its shareholders. The Company signed a number of major agreements in 2018, including a new regulated fuel products Sales and Purchase (SPA) with Qatar Petroleum (QP) for a period of five years; a New Jet Fuel SPA with QP for five years; and its subsidiary Fahes also signed a new contract with the Ministry of Interior (Traffic Department) for a same period of time to offer vehicle inspection services, a mandatory fitness tests required for the renewal of a vehicle’s registration.
Source from: The Peninsula