Growth in Finnish oil consumption levels off

Finland's GCP continued to grow for the second year in succession last year, but sales of petroleum products fell by some 3 % compared to 1994. Total sales were slightly higher than during 1993, however. Contributory factors to this drop were the warmer winter, higher unemployment, and increases introduced in gasoline taxation. Competition remained tough, and pre-tax product prices were the lowest in Scandinavia. Oil accounted for some 27 % of primary energy consumption, the lowest figure of any EU country. The oil industry is working to strengthen its position in the space heating sector in particular, where the situation in terms of oil's share of the market has been unsatisfactory for same time