Experts ask govt to check spread of obsolete oil

Relevant government agencies have been called upon to urgently intervene in stemming the sale of obsolete performance engine oils that have been flooding the Nigerian market for
decades.

Chika Ikenga, group managing director, Eunisell Group, made this call at a programme in Lagos.

He said the intervention will protect companies currently using engine oils for modern vehicles with standards applicable to trucks and cars manufactured as far back as the 1970s.

“Management is largely unaware that their decision to cut operating costs by purchasing cheap,
obsolete oils for their fleets, has consequences – there are hidden costs on not only their
bottom line, but also on environmental and infrastructural degradation,” he said.

Ikenga said companies can easily avoid incurring millions of naira annually on vehicle
maintenance and repairs.

“It is simple – using obsolete service oils causes increased engine wear, catalyst poisoning and particulate filter blocking as well as increased piston deposits, degradation of low and high temperature properties and increased soot-related viscosity,” he said.

“The costs on environmental and infrastructural degradation are even more staggering.

“Without realising it, companies’ efforts to save money results in increased expenditure. This is
tantamount to the popular axiom, ‘penny wise, pound foolish.This is entirely preventable.”

Ikenga, a chemist by profession, highlighted the environmental and health damage to
include pollution, by way of increased Sulphur emissions from poor engine performance,
affecting all strata of society with asthma and other chest ailments; oil leaks penetrating ground
water, which in turn degrades available water supply, oil deposits in ground, fire hazards,
reduced soil quality for agriculture and smoky engines’ reducing visibility, which portends
danger to road users, increasing accident rates.

He called on the government to embark on a massive campaign to create awareness by
educating fleet owners, mechanics and the industry, to raise vehicle industry standards, and
adhere to the internationally recognised American Petroleum Institute (API) guidelines.
Eunisell Groups’ operations formally commenced in 1996.

The company is the leading additives and transport chemicals company in Nigeria supplying products solutions to a wide base of customers operating throughout Africa.