Statoil Ireland, which claims to be the Republic's largest petrol retailer, hopes to increase non-fuel revenue by 25 per cent by year's end.
The company plans to open up to 15 new Fareplay convenience outlets and gain a larger share of the booming forecourt grocery market, said managing director Mr Tony Murray.
The group said it was strongly placed to build on its presence in the Republic had expected to expand its network of Fareplay stores to around 75 from 60.
"Statoil Ireland has performed exceptionally and consistently well since it entered the Irish market 10 years ago," Mr Murray said. "At that stage we were number five in the market with six major players. Today we are number one in an extremely competitive market."
Overall pre-tax profits for the Norwegian group were €1.8 billion for the fourth quarter 2002, up 1.2 per cent on the same period last year. The company's net profit for 2002 fell 2.3 per cent to €2.24 billion. Sales in the period were up 3 per cent at €32.2 billion.
Gas output was particularly strong, with record volumes both for the quarter and the full year, Statoil said.
"The result for 2002 shows that we're well on our way to achieving our goals for 2004," it said in a statement. It did not give an earnings outlook for this year but said oil and gas output would dip this year before growing again.
"The reasons we have a good result are pretty basic - higher production, good regularity (of operations), lower costs and improvement on all the key ratios that we are following," chief executive Mr Olav Fjell told analysts.
