BSJ and Petrojam Bad Gasolene Report – Who was selling Bad Gasolene, the contaminant and its source

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

3.      Service station supervisors or managers

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.