<<Print>>

Motorists who fuel their cars with petrol have been handed with additional responsibility of thoroughly checking the colour of fuel being pumped into their car tanks as they might just be paying for something else other than what they intend buying. A tip-off from the Chronicle newspaper to National Security and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) on Wednesday, led to a swoop and the subsequent closure of the Shell filling station located near the Abeka market in Accra. The Shell filling station was dubiously fuelling cars of unsuspecting motorists with a suspected to be pre-mix fuel, instead of the premium (super). A motorbike rider, who had gone to fuel his bike at the Shell filling station in the early hours of Wednesday, reported to The Chronicle that his bike began to jerk some minutes after buying the fuel. He then went to his mechanic who upon checks discovered that he had pre-mix fuel in his tank instead of premium, due to the bluish colour of the fuel � the colour of the heavily subsidized premix for fisher-folk in the country. The Chronicle however prompted the relevant institutions, who together with some other media house, the National Petroleum Authority, and the Ghana Standards Board, conducted further checks at the filling station yesterday, leading to its closure pending further investigations. The Ghana Standards Board has since taken samples of the �blue coloured petrol� for laboratory tests. Some filling stations visited by the team revealed that while some were under-delivering, others were over-delivering. A typical example is the Fraga Oil Fillings station opposite the Abeka market, which had to be closed down temporary because their delivery machine was delivering more fuel to consumers than they pay for. At the Abeka total filling station, the situation was the opposite. Their machines, although calibrated just two weeks prior to our visit, were under-delivering. The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), in August, 2009, changed the colour of premix fuel to blue, when it became obvious that some greedy persons were diverting the heavily subsided commodity meant solely for us by the fishing communities, for their selfish gains. Other government mitigating measures to check the practice included the conspicuous branding of all tankers lifting premix from TOR. Additionally, devices were fixed on all �premix� tankers to track and monitor their movement. These measures, the government said, had been taken, because of the high cost of subsidy, and the identified diversion of the commodity by some fuel station owners and tanker drivers. But, as an old Yoruba adage has it: �as the hunter has learnt to shoot without missing, so has the eke bird learnt to fly without perching. Or is it vice versa? Some individuals who are bent on manipulating the system to their advantage, without the slightest regard for the effect it has on the larger population, have devised new means of diverting their commodity. Fishermen have lashed out at President John Evans Atta Mills for the constant shortage of premix fuel, despite his promise to make the commodity available to them at all times. The Acting Chief Inspector of the Ghana Standards Board, Nana Anyensan 1, told The Chronicle that the Board periodically makes checks on filling stations to maintain the standards set for them and would continue so as to weed out the bad nuts from the system. In a rather dramatic turn of events, Shell Ghana Limited yesterday ended it contract with the troubled filling station, and would in the next couple of days de-brand the station. A letter from Shell to the owner of the station, Mr and Mrs. Danso Bruce, and sighted by the Chronicle read: �Reference the agreement signed between your good selves (Mr. & Mrs. Danso Bruce) and Shell Ghana Limited, on 19th February, 1998 for twelve years, we wish to inform you of our intention not to renew the contract which expired on the 19th of February 2010. Omar V. Benson, Country Manager Director of Shell explained to The Chronicle that the Abeka Filling station was a dealer-owned service station that had been branded by Shell, and was under contract with the property owner to provide the station with fuel. He explained that since last year, Shell had had issues with compliance and performance of the station, which it discussed extensively with the property owner to rectify or lose its partnership with the company. In a letter dated 27th October 2009 to Mr and Mrs Danso Bruce, and sighted by the Chronicle, Shell had raised concerns about the stations inability to purchase fuel from it since April, among other concerns and threats to withdraw its contract with the station if it did not come to compliance levels. Omar V. Benson mentioned that the last time it supplied fuel to the station was on the 13th of January 2010. He explained further that as standard practice, it was the responsibility of the quality marshal at the station to check the quality of all delivery and to take a day-to-day check of the quality of stock at the station.