Over the long holiday weekend the newspapers carried banner headlines on the serious problems created, apparently, by adulterated regular gasoline. Drivers using premium fuel are not experiencing these problems. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce told reporters late last week that it had contracted outside inspectors to look into the numerous complaints by mechanics and car owners that the fuel was causing mechanical problems. The inspectors looked at fuel from randomly chosen gas stations as well as the Dominican Refinery (REFIDOMSA). According to Hoy and Diario Libre newspapers, the suspect fuel has damaged fuel pumps, causing cars to stall in traffic, sometimes in incredibly dangerous places such as the John F. Kennedy overpass. According to the reports, all major car dealers have reported hundreds of vehicles with damaged fuel pumps and clogged fuel filters. One service manager reported 22 damaged fuel pumps in just two days when the yearly average is usually four or five. Another reported 40 damaged units in his company’s workshops. Delta Commercial Company reported that they had never seen so many damaged vehicles with the same problem. Because modern fuel pumps are mounded inside the fuel tank, the pumps rely on the fuel to serve as a coolant and a lubricator for the pumps, and adulterated fuel causes the pumps to fail. One source told Hoy that they had found a silicone-like substance in many of the damaged fuel pumps.
Following the initial complaints, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MIC) demanded that REFIDOMSA pay for the damages caused by the adulterated fuel. However, the refinery has refrained from commenting on the situation so far. MIC Minister Francisco Javier Garcia told reporters that it was “unpardonable negligence to allow the dispatch of fuel that did not meet specifications.” Minister Garcia said that all car owners who have suffered damage from the adulterated fuel should send their complaints to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce “because the money they spent correcting the damages done to their vehicles should be refunded.”
Over the weekend, REFIDOMSA admitted that on 22 December there was some sub-quality gasoline dispatched from the refinery, but the company’s spin doctors also said that the huge number of fuel pump failures could also be attributed to water or accumulated debris in the vehicles’ fuel tanks, and a series of other possible scenarios. Immediately, ANADEGAS, the gas station owners association criticized the report from the refinery, calling it “irresponsible” as it tried to muddy the reputation of the station owners and car owners as well as the transport companies that take the fuel from the refinery to the stations. ANADEGAS president Juan Ignacio Espaillat said that the four paragraph press release sent out by the refinery dedicated two paragraphs blaming the retailers, one paragraph to blaming the car owners and one paragraph admitting that there was a “minor” problem, “but if you (the car owner) can show us (the refinery) that we were responsible for damaging your car, then we will pay for it.” Espaillat called this attitude “irresponsible.”