by The Union of Consumers of Ukraine, involving reputable international companies, conducted a large-scale study of fuel quality at seven gas stations in Kyiv and the Kyiv region. The results were presented at a press conference at UNIAN on May 24.
The participants of the study included networks OKKO, BRSM, SOCAR, MOTTO, Avantage 7, WOG, SUNOIL. Samples of diesel fuel and gasoline of brand “A-95” were taken by specialists from the company SGS — a world leader in inspection services. The analysis was conducted by the Ukrainian branch of Bureau Veritas, a member of the International Federation of Inspection Agencies (IFIA) — the laboratory “Inspectorate Ukraine.” The Union of Consumers of Ukraine initiated the study.
The study refuted information from some media about the alleged presence of banned monomethylaniline in BRSM fuel. The testers did not detect MMA in samples from any of the seven networks.
Negative results regarding quality were obtained by the fuels in MOTTO and SUNOIL networks. In particular, the sulfur content in gasoline at these gas stations exceeds the norm by 2 times and 20% respectively. The same indicator for diesel fuel is exceeded by 30 and 15 times respectively. The oxygen content (with a norm up to 2.7%) in MOTTO gasoline was 12.7%, in SUNOIL — 6.24%. The octane number is below the norm — 92 for MOTTO and 93.9 for SUNOIL instead of the required 95. In addition, these networks’ fuel revealed an increased content of toxic methanol: with a norm up to 3%, MOTTO had 16.5%, SUNOIL — 3.6%.
“In the MOTTO network, there were also problems with documents. We, unfortunately, found only the manufacturer’s passport. As it later turned out, this passport did not correspond to the indicators obtained from the laboratory study,” said Oleh Tsilvik, Executive Director of the International Academy of Standardization. An obligatory laboratory passport was not found in the Avantage 7 and SUNOIL networks. At SUNOIL, they also discovered the sale of oil products without issuing a fiscal receipt.
The worst results in the “price-quality” ratio were obtained by premium segment representatives. OKKO, SOCAR, and WOG sell gasoline at the highest price in the market — 30.22 UAH. The lowest price is at Avantage 7 — 27.95 UAH. At the same time, OKKO and WOG, like Avantage 7, bought fuel at the same time from one supplier — the Mozyr Oil Refinery. “In an unusual way for market conditions, three operators hold one price, while their competitor with a similar product has a significantly different price. A similar situation with diesel. Three suppliers deliver products from the Mozyr Oil Refinery and again the price differs by 2 hryvnias,” said Oleh Tsilvik. He suggested that such an abnormal pricing policy might indicate that premium networks are forming prices in a non-market way.
