Petroleum companies duping motorists

Comment & Analysis
BY PATRICE MAKOVATHOUSANDS of unsuspecting motorists in the country are coughing up more for a product which costs less on the market as some petroleum companies and service stations in the country are clandestinely importing blended fuel, but selling it as unleaded petrol.

Tests done by the University of Zimbabwe’s Chemistry department  recently show that some of the fuel which has found itself at the country’s service stations was already blended, yet motorists are made to believe it is unleaded petrol which costs more.

“From the respective peak retention times and chromato-graphric profiles (laboratory technique to separate mixtures), it was evident that the samples provided were a petrol blend, whose constituents were typical of that material,” reads findings of the analysis.

The tests show that some of the so-called unleaded petrol carries between 3 to 10% ethanol.

Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) chief executive officer, Gloria Magombo said if there were companies purporting to be selling unleaded petrol, this would be in contravention of the fuel specifications as stipulated in the Government Gazette, General Notice 430 of 2011 published on October 14 last year.

Although oil companies contacted by The Standard were not eager to comment on the issue referring questions to the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim), sources in the industry said the trend has been going on for many years.

A Noczim official who spoke on condition of anonymity said some of the companies were buying cheap and sometimes poor quality blended fuel from “pirate” ships docked at Beira port in Mozambique and transporting the product by road instead of using the pipeline which is subjected to tests by authorities.

He said the country could be losing millions of dollars in customs duty every month as some of the fuel tankers coming into the country were falsely declaring that they were bringing in paraffin or diesel which attracts less duty, yet they would be carrying petrol.

“This is why some fuel importers are resisting using the oil pipeline preferring to use the road because they  connive with corrupt customs officials in order to  beat the system and maximise their profits,” said the official.

“At the end of the day, it is the country which suffers because millions of dollars in potential revenue which should otherwise be used to buy food or medicine end up being pocketed by a few individuals who are politically-connected.”

Minister of Energy and Power Development, Elton Mangoma said although he was not yet aware of the tests done by the UZ,  Zera was now handling all the issues to do with the quality of fuel coming into the country.

He said regular tests were being carried out on fuel coming through the pipeline, but it was difficult to monitor tankers  bringing the product by road.

“That is why we have put a levy to penalise importers bringing fuel using tankers. It becomes difficult to know what they are up to and determine whether their product is good or sub-standard,” said Mangoma. He said it was much cheaper to use the pipeline than tankers which damage the country’s roads.

Nothing wrong with Green fuel

An industry source said some fuel companies were not eager to promote E10, the locally blended ethanol produced by the US$600 million Green Fuel’s Chisumbanje plant because they knew that their fuel was already blended.

E10 currently costs about US$1,39 while unleaded costs around US$1,44.

An engineer with one oil company said the current resistance to E10 stemmed from lack of knowledge by motorists who believe that the product would damage their vehicles.

“In reality the market has been awash with ethanol blended fuel which motorists have been unknowingly using for the past 20 years,” he said. “Fuel marketers do not want to tell motorists that E10 is safe and a good alternative because they want people to continue paying more.”

But the Zera boss said the fuel body was working closely with National Oil Infrastructure Company (Noic), a subsidiary of Noczim, which carries out quality checks on fuel which is largely being imported through the pipeline from Beira.

“The fuel is tested before injection into the pipeline and Nioc approves or rejects any fuel that does not meet the minimum specifications,” Magombo said, adding that random tests were also taken at service stations.

She said the proposed mandatory blending of petrol with ethanol was a policy issue which was currently being addressed by the government, with Zera’s role being to ensure that all stakeholder interests and concerns are addressed.