Almaty car-owners can check petrol quality for $30

Any car-owner willing to check the quality of petrol can ask for an expert evaluation of the fuel, Tengrinews.kz reports citing deputy director of Independent Fuel Expert Evaluation Center Mairam Sebekbayeva. “Any individual from Almaty may come to our office and check the fuel quality. It is quite expensive though. But there are cases when cars are damaged by low-quality petrol,” she said. As per Sebekbayeva, the cost of determinig the gasoline's octane number is around 4-5 thousand tenge ($30). A more detailed analysis of the fuel to inspect it for presence of mechanical impurities, water and a security check of the fuel costs 7-8 thousand tenge ($50). “Oil product is not sour milk that is easy to evaluated at a glance. Evaluation requires finding out where it was filled and transported from. It is so complicated that it is often hard to prove the fuel station's fault. For example, octane number may vary even depending on the seasons of the year,” the expert said. In 2010 Kazakhstan was ranked 82nd in the rating of the International Fuel Quality Center. Fuel quality was evaluated in 100 countries. Earlier Kazakhstan was ranked 90th. By Daniyar Bozov