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Exclusive interview of Director General of Lukoil Azerbaijan CJSC Zaur Jalilov to Azerbaijan’s Trend News Agency.

LUKOIL Azerbaijan manages a network of 63 filling stations in Azerbaijan. How are relations with the supervisory authorities developing? Don't you consider their control excessive?

At all filling stations of the company, fuel dispensers are operated in accordance with the established state requirements. The equipment at the filling stations is regularly checked by authorized government agencies, according to the current legislation. For us, this is an additional incentive to constantly improve service and control product quality.

Is the fuel that you sell in Azerbaijan different from the fuel sold in Russia or Europe?

There is no any difference. LUKOIL offers its customers the patented, high-quality ECTO fuel [a product line of innovative fuels compliant with the European quality level], the composition of which includes special additives. LUKOIL's petroleum products meet the highest international standards, as well as environmental requirements adopted in Russia and the EU.

Do you face dissatisfied customers? Is the Book of Complaints and Suggestions at your filling stations up-to-date?

Modern social networks successfully complement the traditional Book of Complaints and Suggestions. Often, complaints are groundless, and the post on social networks is picked up by other users. We’re always attentive to the wishes of our customers and promptly consider each request on an individual basis. Thanks to this, the degree of consumer loyalty to the LUKOIL brand is high.

Are you able to win over the initially dissatisfied customer and convince him or her of the invalidity of the claims?

We strive for this. For example, in order to process a recent claim from a blogger customer related to a discrepancy between the volume of fuel filled at a petrol station and the capacity of the tank indicated in the registration (logbook) of the car, it was necessary to organize a check of the tank capacity of his car. The fact is that for safety reasons, the technical characteristics of the car may indicate the volume of the tank below the actual one. The difference between the actual and indicated volumes of the fuel tanks varies depending on the manufacturer and on a number of factors operational one.

Measurement of the exact volume is possible only according to the results of the verification, which we carried out.

Based on its results, the customer was able to see that supplied fuel volume corresponds with the actual tank capacity of its car. The blogger published another post on social networks refuting the previously written claim, and also posted a video footage and the results of the control.

Are there instructions for filling station employees in Azerbaijan on how to behave in a given situation, how to react in case of an emergency? After all, gas stations are objects to increased fire hazard.

All LUKOIL filling station employees undergo training, are enlisted in professional development programs and attend regular briefings. Compliance with safety regulations is the responsibility of every LUKOIL employee. This applies to all countries where the company operates, not only to Azerbaijan. Careful attention to the quality of fuel, the level of service and safety at filling stations is in line, inter alia, with the corporate standards of the LUKOIL company in the field of industrial and environmental safety.

What are outomes of the company's activity in Azerbaijan in the first half of 2020? What is the volume of petroleum products transshipped through LUKOIL's oil depot in Azerbaijan? What is the volume of oil products sold by the company in Azerbaijan during this period?

The volume of oil products’ transshipment by LUKOIL Azerbaijan CJSC in the first half of 2020 exceeded 158,000 tons. Retail sale of petroleum products neared 99,000 tons, while small wholesale exceeded 59,000 tons.

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