Ghana and
Nigeria are the first countries to respond to reports of European companies
exploiting weak fuel standards in Africa. Stricter limits on the sulfur content
of diesel will come into force on July 1.
Governments
in West Africa are taking action to stop the import of fuel with dangerously
high levels of sulfur and other toxins. Much of the so-called "dirty
diesel" originates in Europe, according to a report published by Public
Eye, a Swiss NGO, last year.
The report
exposed what Public Eye calls the "illegitimate business" of European
oil companies and commodities traders selling low quality fuel to Africa. While
European standards prohibit the use of diesel with a sulfur content higher than
10 parts per million (ppm), diesel with as much as 3,000 ppm is regularly
exported to Africa.
From July
1, diesel being sold at the pumps in Ghana and Nigeria will have to meet a
maximum 50 ppm standard.
"We're
very happy to see this change in policy," Public Eye's Oliver Classen told
DW. "We are still hoping that other West African countries will follow
suit, such as the Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo or Mali."
Health
risks of dirty diesel
During an
investigation spanning three years, Public Eye tested the fuel for sale at gas
stations in eight African countries, five of which were in West Africa. They
found that more than two thirds of the samples taken had a sulfur level 150
times the European limit.
Africa's
cities are growing quickly. Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, has a population of
21 million, and estimates suggest this number could almost double by the year
2050. Bigger cities mean a much greater risk from air pollution. While rapid
urbanization and the poor quality of the largely second-hand car fleet in the
region are partly responsible for the high levels of air pollution, low quality
diesel also has a significant impact.
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| Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, already has a population of 21 million |
Fuel
pollutants have been linked to the development of asthma, lung cancer and
cardiovascular diseases. The Public Eye report claimed that switching to low
sulfur fuel in Africa, as well as introducing cars with modern emissions
control technologies, could prevent 25,000 premature deaths in 2030 and 100,000
in 2050.
"Double
standards"
Classen
explains that Public Eye has been driving a "two-fold campaign" in
order to force change in the fuel industry.
"Our
partner organizations in West Africa made sure that this strong message from
the people who are suffering from these sulfurous emissions on the ground is
heard by their governments," he says. "In Switzerland we put pressure
on the companies that take advantage of these double standards - shamelessly,
ruthlessly, systematically."
The report
focuses on Swiss trading companies that use a process known as
"blending" to combine low and high specification fuel, creating a
mixture that complies with weak African regulations. As the report explains,
"the closer to the specification boundary the product lies, the larger the
potential margin for the trader."
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| The harmful effects of diesel have been well publicized in Europe in recent years |
This
sub-standard product, known in the industry as "African Quality,"
could not be sold in Europe, but it is not illegal for it to be sold elsewhere.
The blending process - which takes place either in European ports or en route
to Africa, via a "ship-to-ship" transfer - complicates the matter,
because fuel from various suppliers can be mixed into one product.
According
to Public Eye, Swiss companies also own, or are major stakeholders in companies
that own, a great deal of the "downstream" infrastructure used for
blending, transporting and distributing fuel - such as ships, storage tanks,
petrol stations and pipelines.
Despite
having significant oil reserves, West Africa lacks sufficient refinery resource
to process its own higher quality oil and has therefore welcomed cheaper
imports from abroad.
Whose
responsibility?
Following
the report, governments in five West African countries were quick to pledge an
overhaul of fuel regulations. Ghana and Nigeria are the first to follow through
on this promise. But what about the commodities traders in Europe?
"They
actually didn't respond at all," Classen says. "We brought up a
petition here in Switzerland, and 20,000 people signed that petition asking
those commodities giants to stop selling dirty diesel to Africa. But nothing
happened. Zero."
The two
main commodities companies implicated in the report were Trafigura and Vitol.
Both told DW that, while they accepted that the problem of high sulfur fuel
needed to be dealt with, the onus was on the governments in Africa to ensure
the quality of diesel being sold at the pumps.
Vitol added
that, under current regulations, European companies cannot be certain that what
they supply to importers from a certain country will then be sold in that
country. "If Vitol, or any other supplier, were to supply EU-specification
(at a financial loss) to an importer, there is nothing to stop the importer
from reselling the cargo, at a profit, and sourcing a cargo with a cheaper specification
for local use."
Pressure on
the middle men
Around 50
percent of the European oil that ends up in West Africa flows through the ports
of Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, known as the ARA region. Public Eye called
on these "export hubs" to ban the export of fuel that does not meet
European standards.
"There's
a huge public debate going on in the Netherlands and Belgium," Classen
explains. "There have been parliamentary motions and a whole lot of media
coverage on the issue, and there's pressure on their governments there. We are
hoping to see some change of mind which would put Swiss commodity traders under
sever pressure to change their business practices."
In response
to concerns about tougher regulations pushing up fuel prices, Public Eye points
out that five East African countries adopted low sulfur fuels in January 2015
"with no impact on prices at the pump."
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| Ghana has significant oil reserves but only one refinery, the state-owned Tema facility |
Mahamudu
Bawumia, the Vice President of Ghana, said that the introduction of the new
regulations would see Ghana "moving to be at the same level as the western
countries or the East African countries."
He added
that the changes "will reduce respiratory diseases triggered by fuel
toxins with higher sulfur content."
Nigeria has
also announced plans for all domestically produced fuel to meet the 50 ppm
standards by 2020. At a meeting of African fuel producers in February, Ndu
Ughamadu, the spokesperson for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,
said that the installation of equipment to cut sulfur emissions was already
underway or planned at three of Nigeria's four refineries.
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A lorry near Accra. Photo: Carl De Keyzer – Magnum
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