General inspection of gasoline quality after suspected gasoline adulteration
Inspectors from the Ministry of Science and Technology have tested gasoline samples from a series of burned vehicles and 3,000 gasoline and oil samples nationwide to conduct a wide-scale investigation into quality. Experts believe that there may be other reasons for the fires in vehicles.
Gasoline quality is the biggest question in recent car fires. (Illustration photo)
Speaking to the press, Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Science and Technology - Tran Minh Dung said that in the face of a series of vehicle fires and explosions, the agency will continue to conduct a large-scale inspection on the quality of gasoline and oil. Previously, the Ministry Inspectorate had directed the collection of 3,000 gasoline and oil samples nationwide to have an overall assessment of the quality of gasoline and oil.
“The recent car and motorbike fires and explosions need to be looked at carefully, without any suspicion. The gasoline samples from the burnt vehicles have been collected for testing. After testing some of the gasoline from the burnt vehicles, we have not yet discovered any impurities in the gasoline. However, other tests are still being conducted. The Ministry will provide accurate information to the public on whether the cause of the fire was gasoline or not before the 2012 Lunar New Year,” said Mr. Dung.
Regarding the management of gasoline and oil quality, Mr. Dung said that the import process is very strict. Only if the quality meets the standards can it be imported. If it fails, it must be recycled. If it fails, it must be re-exported. As for the situation of poor quality, the main reason is due to measurement (quantity fraud).
In fact, the situation of quality fraud has increased. Most recently, during the inspection of petrol dealers in Ho Chi Minh City, the authorities discovered abnormalities in the octane index (high explosion index). In some other localities, octane index, water or methanol in petrol have also been detected.
Considering this issue, some experts believe that fire and explosion cannot occur without gasoline. However, to cause fire, there must be a spark or a heat source. However, in reality, many vehicle owners do not pay attention to regular maintenance, oil changes, and the installation of additional equipment for flexible vehicles, which will increase the load on the engine and cause the connection points to become loose and create sparks.
On the other hand, according to experts, some imported motorbikes have their headlights always on, so some owners have removed the IC to disconnect the power to avoid damaging the battery. This is also one of the reasons that needs to be carefully studied.
Regarding the quality control of petrol and oil trading units, Mr. Dung added: In the first 6 months of 2011, the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Science and Technology directed inspections in 48/63 provinces and cities with 1,537 petrol and oil trading establishments; handled 97 violating establishments (of which 43 establishments were warned and 54 establishments were administratively fined) with a total fine of over 516 million VND. Typically, in Dong Thap, 4/74 violating establishments were discovered and fined 40 million VND; Gia Lai 6/31 violating establishments were fined, 85,700,000 VND, collecting illegal profits of 70,806,483 VND and Long An discovered 3/9 violating establishments and fined 78 million VND...
Common violations include using uninspected or expired fuel measuring columns; fuel measuring columns that are defective and do not meet measurement requirements or have errors exceeding the allowable limit; labeling of goods not in accordance with regulations; and suspected cases of selling the wrong type of gasoline (mixing color with gasoline 83 to sell gasoline 93). In particular, in Gia Lai, a facility was discovered that installed a chip to change the characteristics of the measuring device. In addition, the authorities also discovered a facility that removed the inspection stamp on the IC and used an unqualified measuring device. This facility was required to be fined 32 million VND...
Previously, during the 2008 inspection, the Inspectorate also discovered many violations at petroleum trading establishments such as: measurement fraud (at that time, electronic devices (chips) and sophisticated technical operations could cheat consumers on quantity, not quality).
According to Dan Tri