Supermarkets Say Their Fuel Is Safe

Fri, 02 Mar 2007
 
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British supermarkets have revealed that tests on petrol supplies have so far failed to show any evidence of contamination. The announcement comes after several thousand motorists in the Southeast of England had complained of engine damage after filling up at supermarket stations.

Drivers said that after filling their tanks at forecourts in the region, their vehicles suffered from reduced and intermittent power, spluttering and even total breakdowns.

Television stations said they had had received hundreds of emails from angry drivers saying their vehicles had broken down or were running roughly.

It had been initially suggested that Tesco petrol stations might have contained ethanol in their supplies .

Before long the issue had spread to other supermarket retailers, resulting in questions being raised about the quality of the petrol supply lines to the supermarket industry.

Morrisons responded by saying it had tested every batch of unleaded petrol to ensure it met British and European standards, and found no contamination.

Another of the ‘big four’ UK supermarkets, Asda said it had received around 80 complaints, and found that the problem appeared to have arisen from a depot east of London, which supplied about 30 of its forecourts.

The Association of British Insurers has stated that as long as motorists have a comprehensive motor insurance policy, they should be able to claim for the cost of accidental damage, if affected by the problem of contaminated petrol .

Clifford Jones, an engineering academic at the University of Aberdeen, said there were three reasonable explanations for the rogue fuel.

A refinery might have allowed other products to mix with the gasoline, or a biofuel like bioethanol might have been put into cars, which were not designed to run on them, or an octane enhancer might not have been added to the gasoline that needed one.

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