Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 1 / Trend E.Ismayilov /
The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) will open its first gas stations in Kiev in May, a source in the company said.
"SOCAR will open two or three gas stations under the SOCAR brand in Kiev in May," the source said.
The source said the stations will open when they are ready for operation. Currently, there are six gas stations in Ukraine under the SOCAR brand.
A source in the Ukrainian representative office said earlier that the number of SOCAR gas stations in Ukraine will reach 500 units within five years. Their number will be 50 units by late 2011.
SOCAR has recently commissioned in Ukraine five stations along the Odessa-Nikolaev-Yuzhnoukrainsk Highway.
SOCAR has a network of about 60 gas stations in Georgia and began to create a network of gas stations in Azerbaijan. Also, the company has already announced its plans to enter the oil product retail market in Romania, which means better access to the EU market.