Today
is a day before the tabling of the Bad Gasolene report from the BSJ (Bureau of
Standard Jamaica) and Petrojam as reported in my blog article
entitled “BSJ
and Petrojam investigating contaminated Gasoline in Jamaica - Why Homemade
Gasoline is to blame”.
And
as I'd expected, it's inconclusive based on the Jamaica Gleaner Summary in the
article “Highlights
Of The Fuel Quality Report”, published Tuesday December 29, 2015 by Neville
Graham, The Jamaica Gleaner.
Before
I get into this, please note that this isn't the full report from the BSJ; it’s
just a summary of the Gasolene Retail trade in Jamaica as islandwide trusting
is still ongoing as noted in the article “Results of
petrol samples will be ready today — BSJ”, published Tuesday, December 29,
2015, The Jamaica Observer.
According
to chairman of the Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ), Professor Winston
Davidson, the BSJ already have some 45 out of the hundreds of service station
retailers that they sampled.
No
word on the contaminant or which member service stations from within the ranks
of the JGRA (Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association) was caught, but I'm
sticking to my guns and saying that the contaminant is homemade Gasolene with
too much sulphur in it.
So
with that out of the way, on to the Jamaica Gleaner Summary!
Jamaica Gleaner Summary
on Bad Gasolene – Gasolene Retail Trade open to corruption
According
to what the Jamaica Gleaner saw, it appears that the contaminant could have
been introduced into the Gasolene Retail Trade by anyone, namely:
1.
Dispatchers
2.
Tanker drivers
4.
Owners of haulage contractors
5.
Scoundrel gas stations who buy the fuel
But
this issue of conflict-of-interest aside, consumer need to watch to for the
following parishes where it is alledged the mixing of the bad gasolene to
dilute the regular high octane gasolene is done:
1. St
Thomas
2. Kingston
3. St
Catherine
4. Clarendon
5. St
Ann
The
Gasolene Retail trade in Jamaica is very open, with little no restrictions on
who or where service station retailers can buy their gasolene, Diesel or
kerosene be they local or foreign suppliers. There also seems to be no import restrictions,
as apparently no-one in customs ask questions as to the source of the fuel.
As
for monitoring agencies, the BSJ is ties, as many of the specialized tests that
can be done are available to Petrojam only. It had struck me as odd too that
Petrojam was a part of the team tasked with analyzing the gasolene, as that
mean that they could use the opportunity to cover any wrongdoing on their part.
Something
tell me that nothing will come of all of this as hinted in the article “Bad
Gas BACKLASH - Energy Minister Warns Of Severe Sanctions For 'Bad Gas' Culprits”,
published Tuesday December 29, 2015, by Neville Graham, The Jamaica Gleaner, despite the Bad
Gasolene report posse being ahead by a day and Minister of Energy Phillip Paulwell
promising sanctions.
When
2 pm comes I’ll update this article with more information.
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