Analysts believe that the outlook for Oman's oil marketing companies is quite positive in the coming quarters as the sector is witnessing a steady growth in sales volumes.

Oman Oil Marketing Company reported an 8% rise in net profit for the first 9 months of this year to OMR 6.74 million from RO6.24 million in the same period last year while its sales revenue went up by 3% to OMR 211.4 million from OMR 205.3 million last year.

Al Maha Petroleum Products outperformed omanoil and Shell Oman Marketing with sales improving 16% during the 9 months to OMR 229.1 million compared to OMR 197.8 million in the same period last year. Al Maha's net profit jumped by 24% to OMR 8.5 million in the nine months period from OMR 6.9 million in the same period last year.

Mr Suresh Kumar head of research at Al Maha Financial Services pointed out that the stock prices for all the three firms have been at a three year high. The overall outlook for the sector is positive with sequential improvement in margins. The growth for the sector is likely to be steady in the coming quarters."

Shell Oman Marketing reported an 11.4% growth in sales revenue to RO300.8mn for nine-month period compared to OMR 270 million in the same period last year. However, Shell Oman Marketing's net profit for the nine months fell by 9.4% to OMR 9.6 million from OMR 10.6 million in the previous year.

Mr Kanaga Sundar head of research at Gulf Baader Capital Markets said that "Strong consumer spending has helped retail oil marketing sector to see a double digit growth in volume annually. Commercial sales is depending on how much government is spending on projects, hence is expected to see higher single digit growth in volume in the coming quarters. Growth in aviation fuel sales is also stable."

Source - Muscat Daily

(www.steelguru.com)