After incurring loss on the sale of petrol for more than 18 months, filling stations in the UAE - owned by Adnoc, Enoc, Emarat and Eppco - are said to have started making profits, albeit marginal.

Ironically, though the higher oil price was a boost to the economy, these companies had to bear higher costs due to increased prices of refined products. In this period, crude oil even saw its highest price since the Gulf War.

"At the present crude price, we do not incur a loss. This doesn't mean that we are making good profits through the sales of fuel at the filling stations,"said a top official of Emirates National Oil Co, which operates Enoc and Eppco filling stations.

According to sources, these companies had been incurring losses of up to 50 fils to Dh1 on each gallon of petrol sold through their filling stations. There were reports that Enoc Group had lost almost $95 million in the last year alone on sales of petrol.

This is because these companies do not have a say in fixing the price of petrol unlike in the case of diesel, the price of which is market driven. Diesel price used to be higher than that of Regular and Premium petrol until a few days back when the diesel price was brought down to Dh3.90 from Dh4.20 per gallon.

During the last week of March this year, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources raised the price of petrol by five and ten fils for Premium and Regular, respectively. Though the government gesture was welcomed by the companies, they argued that this had failed to contain the full loss the 300-odd filling stations had been incurring.

In Dubai, Eppco operates the largest number of filling stations - more than 100. Eppco is the joint venture between Enoc and Caltex where Enoc holds a majority stake.

It is learnt that Eppco has decided to freeze the expansion of its current network of filling stations. Instead, the new additions will be to the Enoc chain, which has relatively less filling stations.