Indigenous company, UK firms partner to boost fuel quality

FUEL users in Nigeria will soon heave a sigh of relief as an Indigenous service company, Engineering Automation Technology Limited (EATECH) has launched new technologies to detect poor quality fuels and lubricating oils in Nigeria’s oil and gas, as well as the aviation sectors.


Speaking on the technologies, the Managing Director of EATECH, Mr. Emmanuel Okon said the company had to partner two United Kingdom (UK) based firms, Cygnus Instruments Limited and Stanhope-Seta Limited in an effort to boost the utilization of good quality fuels by consumers in the country.

Okon who spoke to journalists in Lagos during a workshop to train clients and other users of the various technologies, decried the usage of poor quality or adulterated fuels and lubricants in the Nigerian market, saying that the trend which had done more havoc to users should be stopped.

According to him, at a time when the cost of fuel had gone up following the full deregulation of the downstream sector, it was pertinent that consumers paid for the right quality of fuel they purchased at retail outlets.

He said, “Let us take the aviation sector where all of us know that there is no parking space in the air and that no matter the quality and the integrity of the aircraft engine, any impurity in the aircraft fuel is capable of bringing it down and killing the entire crew and passengers.

“It is order to avert that type of risk that we have decided to bring in the technology that can tell you, this fuel is bad, it is not of the right quality, it has a high level of impurity, and it can destroy the aircraft.

“These UK companies have the technology for the testing of the integrity of aviation fuels, lubricating oils, crude and heavy fuel oils, and motor fuels to ensure that there is no compromise that can lead to human casualties. The technologies can also be deployed to mitigate and manage corrosion in all facilities used in the oil, gas, aviation sectors.”

Okon also said that EAUTECH had also sealed a deal with the UK firms that allowed for the training of many Nigerians in the repair, service, and maintenance of these equipment. Equipment manufacturers

“If you bring in the equipment and they are not well serviced, calibrated and maintained, they will even give you wrong results. We have also worked with the original equipment manufacturers to gain the same competence as they do. We have also gotten the authorization and approval as in-country authorized service centre for these products. And what that implies is that Nigerians don’t need to send the equipment back to the manufacturers in the UK for services, maintenance, repairs and revalidation and calibration.

“Any of the upstream or downstream oil firms or the airlines can call us and we validate or maintain any of the equipment whenever they get spoilt. We are also boosting human capacity by training these Nigerians. That means we are saving a lot of foreign exchange for the country and I believe you know the challenge of sourcing for FOREX these days in the country.