More than 99 percent of fuel stations in Uganda have fully complied with the required product standards, according to a survey completed in April this year. This is an improvement from last year when compliance had deteriorated slightly, following a fall in surveillance activities by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development and the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS).
Rev Frank Tukwasibwe, the Commissioner of Petroleum Supply at the Ministry of Energy, says that this is from surveys done around the 4,189 fuel stations that are in the ministry’s database.
He was speaking at the interaction between the agencies and petroleum products importers and distributors on the status of the fuel marking program, a government initiative aimed at preventing adulteration, smuggling, and dumping of products.
Tukwasibwe said fuel marking technology is the best tool for monitoring and ensuring compliance to standards in the fuel marketing industry, adding that compliance levels in Uganda now are well within the global standards.
Fuel marking was started by marketing companies in Uganda about 20 years ago to help isolate adulterated fuel imports, using the bio-code method.
However, this only enabled relevant agencies to tell whether a product was adulterated or not, and not the extent of adulteration.
This was replaced by the petro mark which can tell the level of adulteration and help make decisions accordingly.
Tukwasibwe said this same technology will be used to ensure quality even when Uganda starts producing her own oil, to maintain quality and prevent dumping, among others.
The routine and impromptu checks cover about 71 percent of the fuel stations every month, according to the Commissioner, and those found in violation of regulations are sealed.
However, there are some that are hard to reach and the UNBS and the ministry admit that they do not cover every station in the country.
Peter Kitimbo, the head of the fuel marking and quality monitoring program at UNBS said most of the adulteration is done not at the fuel station or the source of the product, but during transportation by tanker drivers. He says Eastern Uganda districts along the import routes account for most of the adulteration activities today, having overtaken western Uganda.
The increase in noncompliance from 0.6 in 2020 to more than 2 percent had been caused to a decline in quality surveillance activities, according to UNBS. The agency says the truck drivers took advantage of the reduction of early morning operations and that is when they did most of the adulterations.
A total of 1,600 fuel tankers are certified and monitored by UNBS and this, according to Kitimbo, is just over 70 percent compliance. Kitimbo said they are now encouraging especially the station managers to ensure the products are tested before they are offloaded from the tankers into the station tanks because otherwise, they risk their stations being sealed for noncompliance.
Fuel marking was contracted out to Global Fluids International in 2007, and the company has since been acquired by SICPA with its base at Ntinda Industrial Park. They however conduct much of the sample testing at Amber House on Kampala Road at the Ministry of Energy Headquarters.
Oil marketers complained about the delays at SICPA especially because of the early closure of offices and at weekends when they are hardly at their stations. Hatim Nasser, representing Prompet Energy, said these delays lead to increased costs of handling as well as frustrating businesses when delivery at stations is not on the schedule.
However, SICPA director, Ashie Young denied any inefficiency on their part but said that the environment determines how they operate. Young states that they close at 6 pm daily, adding that because of a lack of security and safety guarantees and the conditions at the premises do not enable them to work beyond that hour.
Meanwhile, Rev Tukwasibwe dismissed as baseless that the cost of marking the products adds to the increase in the costs transferred to the consumers. He said the 30 shillings a liter, which includes VAT, is a fixed amount and does not increase with the increase in the prices of fuel. Tukwasibwe said that in any case, it accounts for less than one percent of the cost.
Boniface Kapere, Inspector of Weights and Measures at UNBS said the verification of fuel tankers is what they think is very costly. This is because they recently adjusted the process where a dipstick is used to measure the volume of the content being delivered.
He said that they realised that the dipstick method is not comprehensive because of the differences and shapes of the tankers. Now, the tanker operators are required to take them physically for inspection which adds to the cost of verification. Kapere said the UNBS is working towards reducing this cost.
-URN
