Kazakh motorists are mass-reporting engine problems after refueling with AI-95 and AI-98 gasoline, according to infohub.kz.
Specifically, car owners describe engine malfunctions after filling up at certain gas stations. Owners of vehicles that are sensitive to fuel quality, including Audi, BMW, and Porsche, are the first to report issues.
Service centers have received complaints from Astana, Almaty, and Petropavlovsk. Motorists link the malfunctions to a possible substitution of high-octane fuel with lower-octane gasoline.
The Ministry of Energy stated that the Atyrau, Shymkent, and Pavlodar refineries produce fuel in accordance with the requirements of the Customs Union technical regulation 013/2011. Supplies of petroleum products to the domestic market are stable.
However, fuel quality control directly at gas stations is not within the Ministry of Energy's authority. Such inspections fall under the jurisdiction of the Committee for Technical Regulation and Metrology of the Ministry of Trade and Integration, as well as regional akimat headquarters.
The Ministry of Trade and Integration said it is ready to conduct control measures upon receiving official complaints from motorists. To do so, one must contact the territorial departments of the Committee.
The Ministry noted that cases of selling fuel with an incorrect octane number are indeed detected. This year, as part of control purchases, every 11th sample did not match the declared octane number.
Violations were recorded in the Kyzylorda region, where AI-92 gasoline was sold as AI-95, and in Almaty, where AI-99 was sold instead of AI-100. For the identified violations, orders were issued to ban the release of gasoline batches totaling 5 million 764.5 thousand tenge.
Earlier, the publication "Kursiv Avto" reported that a blogger checked the quality of gasoline at popular gas stations in Kazakhstan.