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Third week of fuel war : Minister and Vitol trade charges
View(s):Three weeks after substandard diesel stocks hit the market causing damage to more than 1,000 vehicles investigations carried out so far have failed to determine where the contamination took place while a battle rages between the Petroleum Ministry and the supplier Vitol.
The Petroleum Industry Ministry after receiving the preliminary report has decided to send samples to the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) for further tests.
The ministry is also awaiting reports from two foreign laboratories to which it has sent samples.Meanwhile, the ministry yesterday declared that Vitol, the supplier of suspected contaminated diesel, will be permanently blacklisted. But the company shot back claiming it was not responsible for the contaminated stocks.
Minister Susil Premajayantha said no more fuel would be bought from Vitol because the preliminary report had found microbial growth and fungi inside the diesel supplied by the company.
“There have been previous instances where the same supplier had supplied contaminated fuel. There are attempts by a powerful figure to protect the supplier, but we will not give into this pressure,” he pledged. Viotl’s Corporate Communications Division yesterday hit out at the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) saying it had violated industrial norms.
“To date we have received no information from the CPC regarding their investigation nor have we been invited to participate in same,” the division said in a response to questions raised by the Sunday Times.
“It has been over three weeks since CPC raised its initial allegation that the diesel we supplied was contaminated by an unknown substance. Since then we have received not one single piece of evidence to support this claim nor (were we) contacted to take part in joint retesting of the retained ship’s cargo sample which is normal industry practice in cases of disputes over quality,” they said.
The Division said the company had offered the services of a world renowned quality expert, but the offer had not been accepted.
“We are not aware of any other sampling or testing done by CPC to identify the other possible sources of the contamination eg: cargoes from other suppliers or material introduced in the domestic Sri Lankan supply and distribution chain. We understand that the sample that CPC has sent abroad for testing is one from a shore tank that contained both cargo supplied by Vitol and previous suppliers thus rendering any test results (which we have not been asked to witness as is the industry norm) completely invalid. The mixing with chemical or microbial substances is a perfectly plausible explanation for the incidents of damage alleged, but such contamination could have occurred in the local supply system or in cargoes supplied by others,” the company said.
“It is very disappointing that CPC should continue to ignore our messages. The Vitol Group of Companies has been shut out of all business with CPC on the basis of allegations which, after three weeks, still remain unsubstantiated,” it said.
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