P[/drocap]ortugal’s leading fuel and energy retailer, Galp Energia registered a 6.6% slide in annualised direct sales to clients in the second quarter of this year, the Portuguese stock market regulator CMVM reported Friday.

Following sales of around 2.5 million tonnes of fuel, this represents a worsening contraction following a 5.8% drop in first quarter fuel sales by Galp Energia and compares with a 6.4% rise in the second quarter of 2011.

However, the overall perspective for Galp Energia based upon these provisional results looks positive.

The company not only managed to boost output to 18,800 barrels a day in the second quarter, a 36.7% year-on-year rise in oil production and mostly courtesy of its Brazilian drilling operations, but also upped its refining margins by 2.7% to reach US$2.30 per barrel.

However, its natural gas operations is perhaps best indicative of the prevailing conjuncture for the Portuguese economy.

Whilst direct sales to clients fell away by 23.9%, Galp Energia was actually able to boost turnover by 26.4% in the second quarter due to trading on international markets and in particular due to sales to the Asian market.