EWURA Director General, Haruna Masebu

Geneva-based bulk oil importing company, Augusta Energy which has been linked with adulterated petrol in the country has protested at being condemned without being heard, saying dealers had not contacted it over the problem.

Orlando d’Costa who is the local representative of the company said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that they have not received official complaints on the issue.

“The company has not received any official letter from oil dealers complaining of such a problem, we have only read the accusations through the media”, he noted.

He stressed that since the company won the tender to import petroleum products in the country in bulk, its products have been checked by responsible authorities upon arrival at the Dar es Salaam port.

He blamed the nine oil companies and Energy and Water Regulatory Authority (EWURA) for failing to consult the company on the matter, adding: “I cannot understand why TAOMAC has not come to us to find out the truth before rushing to the media. There are proper procedures to be followed in case of such problems,” he said.

He pointed out that the problem of oil adulteration in Tanzania started even before the company won the tender for bulk procurement.

EWURA Director General, Haruna Masebu told the Guardian that the authority had received the alleged contaminated sample from oil dealers which it had submitted to the government chemist for investigation and that laboratory results will be released shortly.

The sample is allegedly of petroleum mixed with ethanol.

“The oil sample was brought to us by dealers. We decided to take it to the chief government chemist for investigations in order to establish the truth,” he said.

The Tanzania Association of Oil Marketing Companies (TAOMAC) issued a statement last week accusing Augusta Energy of importing petrol mixed with ethanol since January this year.

TAOMAC said in a letter to EWURA, that it suspected that petrol was blended with ethanol, requesting the performance bond to be held by EWURA while the dispute is being handled.

The nine oil marketing companies cited various problems encountered by motorists allegedly due to contaminated petrol.

The companies include NATOIL, HASS, KOBIL, OILCOM, PUMA Energy, GAPCO, ENGEN, MOGAS and TIPER.

Since bulk procurement was introduced in Tanzania in January this year, Augusta Energy, has managed to win all tenders to import petroleum products through the system. The tender process is supervised by Petroleum Importation Coordinator (PIC).