The poor quality of basic petrol based products available
at unofficial street stalls and major private and state-owned petrol stations
has been revealed.
A recent under-cover journalist
investigation into the secret world of adulterated petrol production in Ho Chi
Minh City coincided with rising public concerns over the quality of fuel
following a spate of unexplained vehicle fire incidents nationwide.
According to regulations,
16,000 litre capacity oil tankers are only authorised to transport petroleum
directly to petrol stations for sale to consumers. However, in Ho Chi Minh City,
after collecting petroleum from PV Oil Nha Be, trucks stopped to have their
fuel adulterated with other substances.
The ‘mysterious stations’ are
located in thinly-populated residential areas in streets such as Hoang Quoc
Viet, Dao Tri and Huynh Tan Phat in District 7. All of these stop-off points
carry no forms of identification or signage.
At 8 am every day tankers rush
into the illegal points and carry out their operations over less than half an
hour.
As soon as the trucks leave, a
group of people carrying empty plastic cans and buckets collect the deposited
fuel and leave with full buckets of petroleum for selling.
During the two-week inspection,
the reporters detected that the trucks stopping at these points included
tankers from major petroleum companies such as Vietnam National Petroleum
Corporation (Petrolimex) Petrolimex and those hired by petrol stations.
Mystery stations
Reporters managed to access one
of these stations and discovered hundreds of square metres filled with oil
drums, tubs, plastic cans and water pumps.
After a Petrolimex truck with
the number plate 57K-8275 entered the station, men discharged the fuel from the
tanker into the plastic cans. The decanted tanker was then topped up with an
unidentified transparent liquid to make up for the siphoned fuel stolen at the
stop-off point.
The stolen fuel was then
illegally sold on to those buying directly from the stop-off point.
Trinh Ngoc Giao, General
Director of the Vietnam Register, said cities and provinces nationwide had
recorded a total of 89 vehicle fires in 2011, leaving two dead and two others
injured.
Hanoi has seen at least 42
vehicle fires since December, 2010 through to mid-December of 2011, Giao noted.
Although the reasons for the
spate in vehicle fires had been ascertained, it is speculated that substandard
fuel may have been a contributory factor.
Dr. Dao Quoc Tuy, Head of the
Hanoi University of Technology’s Department of Organic Synthesis and
Petrochemical Technology told DTiNews that, “If petrol is improperly blended
with additives such as acetone or methanol, it can cause damage to engines and
maybe even start fires.”
The Prime Minister has ordered the
Ministry of Science and Technology to deliver their results on the inspection
of petrol quality, following recent vehicle fires.
Pumping liquid into the tanker
Thanh Nien, dtinews
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