Slovenia's Petrol Jan-Sept net sales fall 23 pct

* Sales down 23 percent to 1.7 bln euros

* Number of employees up by 8 pct

LJUBLJANA, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Sales at Slovenia's largest fuel retailer Petrol (PETG.LJ) fell by almost a quarter to 1.7 billion euros ($2.53 billion) in the first nine months of the year, as recession took a toll on volumes and prices.

The group reported in October that net profit had more than halved for the period to 19.1 million euros from 42.2 million a year earlier.

"Net sales fell mainly due to lower prices of oil products and lower sales of oil products, which is a result of higher excise duties than in most neighbouring countries and of economic recession," Petrol said in a statement.

Petrol, which operates 430 filling stations in Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro, increased its payroll by 8 percent to 3,611 employees over the past year and plans to raise this number to 3,681 by the end of 2009.

Petrol ended 2008 with a loss for the first time since it was listed in 1997 but managed to return to profit in the second quarter of 2009 [ID:nLN260402]. (Reporting by Marja Novak in Ljubljana, editing by Will Waterman) ($1=.6710 Euro)