EPRA Names Petrol Stations Caught Selling Diluted Fuel [LIST]

by Michael Musyoka on Wednesday, 31 March 2021 - 8:36 am

A photo of a petrol station attendant pumping fuel into a car in Nairobi County in February 2020.

Photo

Ma3Route

The Energy & Petroleum Regulatory Body (EPRA) on Tuesday, March 30, released the names of petrol stations that had been caught selling adulterated fuel in the wake of the rising fuel prices in the country.

In a public notice, the regulator stated that it had found 12 stations were either selling diluted fuel or fuel bound for export for a period of three months from January 2021.

"During the period January - March 2021, a total of 5,536 tests were conducted at 1,182 petroleum sites.

"From the tests, 98.99% of the sites were found to be compliant. However, tests from Twelve (12) sites turned out to be non-compliant," EPRA revealed.

An undated image of a petrol station in Nairobi.

File

The stations were identified through continuous monitoring of the quality of petroleum motor fuels on sale, transport and storage throughout the country.

The Authority highlighted that the petrol stations found to be non-compliant were situated in Embu, Busia, Nakuru, Kisii, Meru, Trans Nzoia, Busia Murang'a Wajir, Nyamira and Mandera counties.

A majority of the petrol stations were found to be offering for sale Diesel or Petrol containing high sulphur content - which has a negative impact on the effectiveness of emission control systems.

EPRA closed the pumps and fined some petrol station up to Ksh560,000 in taxes and penalties to have the pumps reopened.

No petrol station from the major cities of Nairobi, Kisumu or Mombasa were found to be dealing in adulterated fuel.

The regulator requested members of the public to report suspected cases of petroleum fuels adulteration or export dumping through the hotline number (0708444000) as well as use the Authority's USSD Code (*363#) and SMS service code (40850).