The Independent newspaper reports of influx of sub-standard and contaminated fuel on the market, which is being sold to unsuspecting motorists. Credible information available to the paper say, the fuel hit the Ghanaian market in December last year and it is still in the system causing problems for fuel attendants country-wide. Investigations have established that the suspected contaminated and sub-standard fuel has affected sales of fuel stations that have difficulties in pumping out fuel for sale to motorists. According to some fuel station managers, and pump attendants reporters of The Independent spoke to countrywide, the situation affected the pumping out of the fuel. They told The Independent that they detected this problem in December last year but attributed it, initially, to technical problems but later when the problem became widespread, they found out that, the problem had to do with the sub-standard fuel that had hit the Ghanaian market. Corroborating the findings of investigations, spokesperson of Ghana Oil Company (GOIL), Star Oil Company (SOC), Total and Oando, who pleaded anonymity, confirmed the story when contacted to ascertain the veracity of the information available to The Independent. “Yes the problem surfaced last December and it still persist at some filling stations,” one of them said. Some alleged the crude that was received by TOR was what created the problem as it was of poor quality. Confirming the problem to the Independent, a GOIL representative in the Volta Region said the situation led to artificial shortages and formation of queues of vehicles in Ho, Kpando, Hohoe and other parts of the Volta Region. A spokesperson of Star Oil Company also confirmed the story in an interview and said the situation has been rectified with the topping up of quality fuel supplied them from TOR. Fuel attendants said the problem has crippled sales and operations of their stations, leaving them at their wits end. When Dr Kwame Ampofo, Chief Executive Officer of Tema Oil Refinery, he confirmed the story saying, “the matter came up at the monthly meeting of stakeholders in the oil industry last Tuesday.” He said, a committee has been put in place to investigate the matter to find out the source of the distribution of that low standard fuel, giving the assurance that his outfit will soon put in place quality assurance measures to check such influx. Source: The Independent/Ghana