Driver anger as petrol stops cars
By Lu Nengneng |
February 27, 2012, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Car owners in southwest China's Yunnan and Guizhou provinces are reporting problems with their cars after filling up with 93-octane petrol, China National Radio said yesterday.
The complaints follow confusion in Shanghai after drivers noticed different colors of petrol when they were filling up, sparking concern over quality.
Check-ups at garages in the provinces suggested that the problems, which included excessive carbon emissions, unstable idling speeds, and even engine failure, were caused by the gasoline, including some provided by China's two biggest oil companies, PetroChina and Sinopec.
A taxi driver surnamed Shu from Hongjing city in Yunnan Province, whose new car failed to start after he filled it up with petrol, was the first to report such cases to the radio station. He recalled that he had difficulty starting his car a few days earlier and had noticed the idling speed was erratic after using the same type of fuel.
The problem petrol, which Shu's mechanic found "gluey," was from a privately owned petrol station, but similar complaints also involved service stations operated by local branches of Sinopec and PetroChina.
Officials in Kunming, Yunnan's capital, said it was difficult to identify the source of the problem fuel as most car owners filled their tanks when they were half full.
The city's Industry and Commerce Administration has begun inspecting samples at petrol stations and said it would reveal the test results soon.
So far, no similar cases have been reported in Shanghai, although worries over petrol quality were aroused after drivers noticed color differences between fuel from Sinopec and PetroChina. A picture on the Internet contrasting samples taken from PetroChina and Sinopec stations showed the former was transparent while the latter was yellow.
Wang Yanzhen, a professor at the College of Chemical Engineering at the China University of Petroleum, told the radio station that a darker color can be caused by contamination in storage, or oxidation, or the breakdown of certain additives under the effect of light.
Han Weiliang, deputy manager of Sinopec's branch in Qingdao in east China's Shandong Province, said their preliminary guess about the color differences was that the refined petroleum products used different sources of crude oil.
Professor Wang said that while it was hard to tell the quality difference simply by the petrol's color, it could be used as a reference. "Colorless petrol like water is the best, and those with light color or a tint of yellow is also okay. But a darker color shows it has deteriorated."
An officer at a provincial quality inspection institution told the radio station that there was no official standard for petrol's color, but transparent and light-colored ones were more reliable.
The two oil giants are said to have tightened controls on external supplies following the problems. PetroChina was said to have ordered its sales companies to suspend external procurement of petrol from February 15.
Last May, car owners in several provinces reported malfunctions after using 93-octane fuel from Sinopec service stations. The company later eliminated some supplies from external sources.
The complaints follow confusion in Shanghai after drivers noticed different colors of petrol when they were filling up, sparking concern over quality.
Check-ups at garages in the provinces suggested that the problems, which included excessive carbon emissions, unstable idling speeds, and even engine failure, were caused by the gasoline, including some provided by China's two biggest oil companies, PetroChina and Sinopec.
A taxi driver surnamed Shu from Hongjing city in Yunnan Province, whose new car failed to start after he filled it up with petrol, was the first to report such cases to the radio station. He recalled that he had difficulty starting his car a few days earlier and had noticed the idling speed was erratic after using the same type of fuel.
The problem petrol, which Shu's mechanic found "gluey," was from a privately owned petrol station, but similar complaints also involved service stations operated by local branches of Sinopec and PetroChina.
Officials in Kunming, Yunnan's capital, said it was difficult to identify the source of the problem fuel as most car owners filled their tanks when they were half full.
The city's Industry and Commerce Administration has begun inspecting samples at petrol stations and said it would reveal the test results soon.
So far, no similar cases have been reported in Shanghai, although worries over petrol quality were aroused after drivers noticed color differences between fuel from Sinopec and PetroChina. A picture on the Internet contrasting samples taken from PetroChina and Sinopec stations showed the former was transparent while the latter was yellow.
Wang Yanzhen, a professor at the College of Chemical Engineering at the China University of Petroleum, told the radio station that a darker color can be caused by contamination in storage, or oxidation, or the breakdown of certain additives under the effect of light.
Han Weiliang, deputy manager of Sinopec's branch in Qingdao in east China's Shandong Province, said their preliminary guess about the color differences was that the refined petroleum products used different sources of crude oil.
Professor Wang said that while it was hard to tell the quality difference simply by the petrol's color, it could be used as a reference. "Colorless petrol like water is the best, and those with light color or a tint of yellow is also okay. But a darker color shows it has deteriorated."
An officer at a provincial quality inspection institution told the radio station that there was no official standard for petrol's color, but transparent and light-colored ones were more reliable.
The two oil giants are said to have tightened controls on external supplies following the problems. PetroChina was said to have ordered its sales companies to suspend external procurement of petrol from February 15.
Last May, car owners in several provinces reported malfunctions after using 93-octane fuel from Sinopec service stations. The company later eliminated some supplies from external sources.
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