Myanmar Petroleum Products Enterprise (MPPE) will take serious actions against private petrol stations with sub-standard quality

Myanma Petroleum Products Enterprise (MPPE) will take serious actions against private petrol stations with sub-standard quality, according to its managing director U Thant Zin.

Six mobile testing laboratories were imported last year. While they have been put to limited use already, so far petrol stations failing tests have only received warnings, he said.

“We are checking privately owned petrol stations with the mobile labs, but it has been limited because of a number of reasons. Some private stations are taking the opportunity to continue their usual way of doing business,” he said.

U Thant Zin said he pledged to crack down on poor quality or devious stations.

“We will terminate licences for distributors and importers, temporarily or permanently, if we find poor quality at stations and storage facilities,” he said.

MPPE will both conduct random checks with the mobile lab and send fuel samples to the Ministry of Energy’s stationary laboratory, and also expand searches to both fuel stations and privately owned wholesale storage facilities.

However, MPPE officials said it is not yet able to provide detailed information, such as the number of times it tested fuel this year or the previous year.

MPPE Yangon Region official U Tin Naing Soe said the rate of inspections has increased this year compared to last, even though in neither year has MPPE taken action.

The mobile labs can check every type of fuel commonly sold at stations, including premium and diesel – but can only visit three or four stations a day.

Taxi driver U Maung said MPPE should regularly check stations. He added taxi drivers normally do not complain about stations they suspect of not conducting business properly, instead simply avoiding them.

“I am currently facing the problem of poor quality petrol,” he said.

Private import of petrol products was first allowed in 2010, the same year that nearly all state-owned petrol stations were privatised.

As of last count, there were 1462 privately owned petrol stations in the country, including 115 in Yangon alone.

There are also 6 private storage facilities and 15 vessels permitted to import petroleum products, according to figures from the Ministry of Energy released last month.

Source: http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/business/13388-mppe-pledges-crackdown-on-weak-petrol-stations.html

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