Military Petroleum Co wants Daewoo to compensate for tainted fuel

The Military Petroleum Co says that it has asked the Korean provider Daewoo International Corp to take back 3,000 tonnes of acetone-mixed petrol and pay compensation of 2-3 billion dong (US$125,000-187,000) for damages caused by the fuel.
According to Vuong Dinh Dung, director of the Military Petroleum Co, the acetone-mixed gasoline was sourced from Glencore Co of Singapore, but his company directly imported this kind of petrol from the Republic of Korea’s Daewoo International Corp so his company will only work with the Korean company. After that, the Korean company can work with the Singaporean firm to determine why the acetone was mixed into the petrol.
The argument of the Military Petroleum Co for the request of compensation is: though the acetone-mixed petrol imported from the RoK met 11 quality standards of Vietnam during the testing process, petrol is a special kind of good so it must serve engines well when it is used.
However, many motorbikes in Vietnam that used this kind of petrol had problems, which caused losses for consumers and damaged the prestige of the Vietnamese importer. Thus, the provider must take responsibility and compensate such losses.
The Vietnamese and Korean partners planned to meet each other on Tuesday, September 5 in HCM City but Daewoo postponed the meeting till September 9. At the meeting, the two sides will discuss tests and the solutions for the remaining volume of acetone-mixed petrol as well as compensation.
Leaders of the Vietnam Petroleum Import Export Corp (Petrolimex) also said that representatives of Singapore’s Glencore Co will come to Vietnam this week to inspect the acetone-mixed petrol imported by Petrolimex being kept at the Nha Be Petroleum Warehouse.
By September 1, both providers of acetone-mixed petrol had announced that they had recalled all of the ‘problem’ petrol from the market. However, the question, “why was acetone mixed into the petrol?” has still not been answered.
Which consumers to compensate and how to compensate them for damages caused by the petrol has not been decided yet by the two providers, except for by providing ‘clean’ petrol for those who can prove that they bought petroleum at their filling stations and suffered losses.

 

Category: Business