Fuel supplied by leading brands damaging car engines in Pakistan, OGRA verifies Honda's claim

LAHORE – The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) in its rigours test has confirmed that oil companies and refineries were using chemicals to increase the quality of petrol, consequently damaging engines.

In 2017, Honda Atlas had filed a complaint with OGRA alleging that the fuel provided by Shell, PSO, and Total was affecting the engines of its vehicles.

The auto manufacturer told OGRA that oil manufacturing companies were adding manganese to increase the Research Octane Number (RON) to meet OGRA’s standards.

Fuel from Shell, Total, PSO harms engines, Honda lodges complaint with OGRA

The regulatory authority in collaboration with Hydrocarbon Development Institue of Pakistan (HDIP) conducted multiple tests after the application and verified the observation of Honda.

In the report, the content and amount of chemicals has been deemed harmful to vehicles, environment as well as human health.

The reports further state that chemicals were being used by importers and oil companies to increase the RON value at a lower cost.

Not only Honda had moved OGRA, Hascol petroleum also had the same viewpoint over fuel quality. The fuel company told that many refineries were using harmful chemicals.

On the other hand, the companies accused of deceiving consumers, claimed that Hascol was trying to get a competitive advantage out of all this and the company itself used the same methods.

OGRA and HDIP found the following chemicals after conducting tests on petrol samples with RON value of 90 and 92;

·         Manganese: 63.31 parts per million (ppm) to 315.5 ppm.

·         Iron: 6.2 to 35.1 ppm.

·         Manganese in imported petrol: 1.62 ppm.

·         Iron in imported petrol: 63.88 ppm.

The report shows that in order to increase RON number, companies were using MMT and Ferrocene.

These chemicals cause the catalytic converter to choke after reacting with it. These metallic particles are also very harmful to the environment and human health.

Previously, the Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) — a body of fuel suppliers in Pakistan — rejecting Honda Pakistan’s allegations asked the company to take back its complaint regarding the sale of low-quality fuel or face legal action.

Honda’s model incompatible with fuels used in Pakistan, OCAC responds to allegations

The complaint was filed by Honda in November, last year, after the company halted the booking of the latest variant of Honda Civic as many users of Honda Civic 1.5 turbo reported that their vehicles produced annoying knocking sound and the overall performance of the engine was decreased as well.