The local petroleum trade is being hit by what’s being called bad gas!
Energy Minister, Phillip Paulwell, confirmed reports reaching Nationwide News today that scores of motorists are complaining that the bad gas is rendering their vehicles inoperative.
The Energy Minister says the state-owned oil refinery, Petrojam, investigating the reports that there’s bad gas on the local market.
The so-called bad gas is fuel, either 87 or 90, that’s intended for vehicular usage which doesn’t meet market standards.
Patley Spence is a route taxi operator in Montego Bay, St. James in western Jamaica.
He says for the past few weeks he’s noticed that the injectors in his motor car have stopped working.
Mr. Spence is blaming the problem on what he says is the bad gas on the market.
The President of the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Service, TODDS’ Egeton Newman, says he’s received more than 16 complaints from taxi operators in regards to bad gas on the local market.
Mr. Newman says three vehicles have been damaged from gas purchased in the corporate area.
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When Nationwide News contacted the Energy Minister, Phillip Paulwell, he confirmed that Mr. Spence’s complaints have been substantiated by other reports.
AND It’s not only motorists who are complaining.
The President of the Jamaica Gasoline Retailer’s Association, Leonard Green, says dealers in his Association are also complaining about the delivery of bad gas to their stations.
Minister Paulwell says he’s been assured by Petrojam that they are not the source of the problem.
Meanwhile, our newscenter contacted the multinational petroleum marketing company Rubis Energy for a response to the issue.
In an emailed response, Rubis says they’ve “been advised of complaints received from motorists with regard to vehicle performance issues relating to fuel supplied by the petroleum industry.”
The company says they “are treating this matter with the utmost urgency and are collaborating with the other stakeholders in the industry to ascertain the source of the problem.”
