Paul Kirk Petrol dealers in the coastal areas of KwaZulu-Natal are gearing up to give the cold shoulder to hot petrol. At the end of this month the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) will convene a meeting to discuss what is to be done about hot, warm and cold petrol.
As petrol heats it expands. When it cools, a certain amount of contraction takes place. So if a petrol tanker is allowed to stand in the sun for several hours, or if it has to travel a great distance, the volume of petrol in the tanker will increase. For more than two years warm petrol has been a hot talking point among petrol dealers in the Durban and Pietermaritzburg areas. This week the Mail & Guardian obtained fascinating documentation from the SABS, the Department of Mineral and Energy Affairs and petro-chemical companies.
The documents show that, when petrol is loaded from the refineries on to tankers, the temperature of the liquid is monitored. If the petrol is hotter than 20C, a series of calculations are made to work out what the volume of the liquid would be. The owner of the tanker is then only charged for this amount.
However, when the tanker delivers its load to a petrol station, the owner is charged according to a meter attached to the hose on the tanker. This meter measures volume and, because of heat expansion, the amount offloaded by a tanker is often more than what was loaded at the refinery. The petrol station owner is not compensated for this. One bulk loading record given to the SABS by a dealer shows that a diesel tanker delivered nearly 100 litres more than was loaded at the refinery. And diesel expands less than petrol. Receipts show how in some cases tankers delivered nearly 250 litres more than what they loaded at refineries. Once the fuel is poured into underground storage tanks at garages, dealers lose again. The tanks are always quite deep under the forecourts and are very cool, causing the petrol to contract again. Thus, with a single delivery, a petrol supplier can sometimes sell the garage up to R1 000 more petrol than the supplier paid for. It costs about R80 000 for a tanker of petrol. A large petrol retailer said that, over the past 15 years, he believes he may have lost as much as R1,5-million by buying hot petrol. The SABS meeting in Pretoria on June 26 comes after it received numerous complaints about hot petrol. According to the SABS, depending on the outcome of this meeting, a special group may be formed to investigate the issue and make recommendations on ways of alleviating the problem of temperature variance in fuel deliveries. A representative of the SABS said the purpose of the meeting would be to “reconsider present legislation, ascertain if it is still relevant and to amend it if need be”. The SABS said Parliament had also asked it to convene the meeting. Although the M&G could not contact Pietermaritzburg-based MP Yunus Carrim or his colleague Ben Dikobe for comment, the two were instrumental in facilitating the meeting. In the letter to Rob Davies of the trade and industry portfolio committee the pair asked Davies to investigate the issue of hot petrol and arrive at a solution that does not prejudice motorists or other stakeholders. Ironically, though, motorists benefit from the temperature variances. Once cool petrol passes through the pump into a warm petrol tank it expands slightly. Regardless of how expensive petrol becomes, motorists get about 1 litre of petrol free with every 1 000 litres they buy.