THE Government is moving fast to address a substantive part of the bad gas debate that there is no industry specification for unwashed gum” — the main contaminant identified by the Bureau of Standards (BSJ) in its test of fuel samples from several service stations and the storage facilities of marketing companies.

The issue was highlighted by major oil importing company Rubis, following allegations that it had supplied bad gas to to the market.

“There is no specification, under Jamaican law, for unwashed gum levels in gasolene-ethanol blends with additives; leading marketing companies, including Rubis, add their own additives to enhance the performance of the product. As there is no local specification for unwashed gum, we comply with international standards… our products meet and in many cases, exceed, all local standards and regulations where they exist,” Rubis’ Chief Executive Officer Alain Carreau said in a release yesterday, in which he also denied reports that the company’s storage facility is contaminated.

But the BSJ says it has now reached an agreement with industry stakeholders, which would essentially fix that gap in the law. BSJ Chairman Professor Winston Davidson acknowledged that the regulations do not, in fact, contain any provision for the specification for unwashed gum.

“However, there are some industry standards and best practices that are referenced. In our discussions we have decided to use one particular industry standard as the benchmark. This is derived from our calculation from an industry standard of 30 milligrams (of additives) per 100 millimetres of product (motorgas) but we have put the standard at 35,” Dr Davidson told to the

Jamaica Observer yesterday, explaining that additives can include substances such as detergent, fuel enhancers, and rust inhibitors.

He said the stakeholders had agreed with the BSJ to use this 2013 standard until it can arrive at one fashioned for the local industry. He said this process has to be carefully conducted because the standard has to be derived bearing in mind that the additives that are put into the product by the various marketing companies also increase the occurrence of unwashed gum.

“We do not know what proportion of these additives will lead to how much increase of the gum, so we are going to do some pilot projects with those marketing companies — which will give us an idea of the impact of the use of these additives so that we can measure how much unwashed gum is in the system, and therefore will be able to establish standards in our particular environment. Once we establish it scientifically, then the whole industry will have a standard that we can reference and we will be in a position to be able to state, without fear of contradiction, who is responsible for what and why,” Professor Davidson stated.

In the meantime, Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association (JGRA) President Leonard Green said retailers — who had been put out of business for the past week — will definitely be making a claim on their marketing companies.

He said at this point no figure has been put to the losses, but that at least two of the eight JGRA members, whose pumps had been locked, had reported having a combined 47 million litres of gasolene in those tanks at the time. Still, he said, storage amounts vary from one site to the next.

“We have recognised one source so even if it spreads over more than one marketing company, I’m sure there will be some discussion with that one source,” he noted.

Not only are the retailers still miffed at what they view as the skirting of responsibility by the marketing companies but, according to Green, what they find particularly aggravating is that early signs that something was allegedly wrong with the gasolene even before it was sold to motorists had been ignored.

“We know, as a fact, that retailers had complained about the quality of the products because they were having problems at the pump even before it came to the nozzle,” he charged.

Twelve of the 17 stations, which had been ordered to close their pumps, have since had them reopened following retesting and approval of their product by the BSJ. The BSJ said new samples have been taken from the remaining five for retesting and the results should be ready today, to determine whether the public can start purchasing petrol from them again.

As for the other samples that were taken from over 300 stations across the country, Professor Davidson said testing continues but that so far there has not been any further evidence of contamination.

“I think the problem of the bad fuel will be a thing of the past, but we have to continue the process,” he said.