A few days ago, a motorist from Ath broke down with her Skoda, only 3 years old. His mechanic scanned the vehicle from every angle, he found nothing more suspicious than… gasoline. He took a sample: the gasoline was dark brown in color…
Its essence was colored… dark brown
As she had just filled up at a service station in La Louvière (in Cora) that she had never visited before, the motorist was worried regarding the quality of the fuel sold there. She contacted the manager who was surprised by this complaint, no other client (and there are many) having come forward.
But the director did not shy away. “If a customer notices a problem related to our fuels, we invite him to submit a substantiated and documented complaint. We will take our responsibilities on the basis of a detailed expert report demonstrating the nature and the exact causes of the damage”.
Good quality fuels in Belgium
In general, fuels are of good quality in Belgium. This is the Fapetro (Fund for the analysis of petroleum products), a public body which depends on the FPS Economy and Energy, which says so.
Each year, more than 10,000 samples are taken from the country’s 3,152 service stations (at least 1 sample per year from each station). In 2021, these 10,557 samples revealed a slight deterioration: we went from 3.29% of non-compliant fuel in 2020 to 4.57% in 2021. “But below 5%, we can consider that the quality of our fuels is good”, concludes Fapetro in its latest report. The non-conformities observed mainly concern a problem with vapor pressure (it varies according to the season), the flash point (temperature at which the fuel ignites) or oxidation stability.
What to do then?
La Fapetro can also analyze on demand
“If the consumer has a big doubt regarding the quality of a fuel, we invite him to call us or send us an email so that we can take a sample from the service station in question”, explains Mathias Gueth, manager of the secretariat at Fapetro. “We can have the results within 24 hours, or in 2 or 3 days if the first result is non-compliant and we have to go through a counter-analysis”.
> For more information, you can call 02/277.62.96 or 02/277.87.01 or send an email to: petrole-fapetro@economie.fgov.be
