Oil marketing companies have formally accused the supplier of petroleum
products through the bulk procurement system (BPS), Augusta Energy, over what
they claim to be poor quality petrol supplied between January and March, this
year.
Swiss-based Augusta Energy has won three consecutive tenders to supply
oil to Tanzania through the bulk procurement system from January to June 2012
with each tender covering two months.
In a letter dated April 5, 2012, to the Energy and Water Utilities
Regulatory Authority (EWURA), the oil companies, through their umbrella
association, Tanzania Association of Oil Marketing Companies (TAOMAC), say they
suspect the petrol to have been blended with ethanol.
“As provided under the BPS manual, we formally register a dispute with
EWURA for handling and request the performance bond to be held by EWURA while
the dispute is being handled,” the letter, signed by TAOMAC Executive Director,
Mr Salum Bisarara, reads in part.
TAOMAC also wants EWURA to compel Augusta to
submit the port’s certificate of quality for the vessels that discharged fuel
between January and March.
“Since the product is suspected of being blended with ethanol, could
EWURA give the results of test samples sent to the government chief chemist as
promised before the parliamentary committee on energy and minerals and also
advise if “ethanol blended” petrol is allowed in the country and to what
extent?” the companies query in their letter.
Reached for comment on Sunday, the Director General of EWURA, Mr Haruna
Masebu told the ‘Daily News’ that the authority was awaiting test results from
the chief government chemist.
“It is true that we have received such complaints.
Samples have already been taken to the chief government chemist. Other tests
conducted on the same have indicated that the fuel is not contaminated.
“However, we cannot ignore complaints from the public; we took the
samples to the chief chemist because they have better equipment. We have been
pressing the chemist to provide us with the results,” Mr Masebu said.
Nine oil marketing companies have reported various inadequacies with
the fuel, ranging from malfunctioning digital flow meter, failure of dispensing
units as well as failures of motor vehicles.
The companies include Gapco, Engen, Mogas, Tiper, NATOIL, Hass, Kobil,
OilCom and PUMA Energy (formerly BP Tanzania).As a result of the “poor quality
fuel,” the oil marketing companies say they are incurring financial loss in
maintenance of equipment, replacement of the product, repair of customers’
vehicles as well as loss of revenue due to lack of sales.
“There is a letter from Rwanda that is in circulation branding Mogas as
a supplier of contaminated fuel,” Mogas claimed in the letter while Hass said
four of its trucks have been held in Kigali, Rwanda, and refused to offload.
Mogas also said it has also incurred high truck demurrage costs waiting
for action in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Kigali in
Rwanda. OilCom said 10 trucks were rejected by dealers on concerns of quality
whereas 10 of its network of retail outlets in Dar es Salaam were also
affected.
The oil marketing companies also allege in their letter that they are
made to pay for a price differential of approximately 700 USD per metric tonne
as the price of ethanol is about 30 per cent of pure petrol in the world
market.
Source: The Daily News,http://dailynews.co.tz, reported by Alvar Mwakyusa
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