The oil and gas regulatory agency ANP said Friday that it has decided to suspend a fuel quality monitoring program in Brazil for two months, starting Nov. 1, due to cuts in budget operated by the federal government, raising concerns about industry bodies. who fear an escalation of irregularities.
In a statement, the agency said the program is expected to resume in January, but provided no details.
However, in letters sent by the regulator to universities participating in the programme, the ANP advised that monitoring should be resumed in 2025 with a total cut of 25% of samples, according to four of these letters seen by Reuters.
Created about 25 years ago, the Fuel Quality Monitoring Program (PMQC) is the most important tool that monitors the quality of fuels sold at gas stations around the country, such as gasoline, diesel and ethanol.
Carried out by universities and research institutes commissioned by the agency, the program is statistical in nature, monitors the national fuel market and reports compliance rates, outlining an overview of the universe of this market, according to the ANP.
The suspension by the municipality raised fears among industry bodies, who sent a letter to the Ministry of Mines and Energy saying the stoppage could cause “significant harm to the company”, according to a document seen by Reuters.
The letter, signed by bodies such as the Brazilian Petroleum Institute (IBP), the Legal Institute of Fuels (ICL), the Association of Fuel Importers (Abicom), among others, on October 14, also underlined “the importance of the PMQC as an effective tool in the fight against irregularities”.
For example, the group of entities stated in the document that they have undertaken work to identify the commercialization of diesel B with a biofuel content lower than that required by the legislation and that, based on the information provided by the program, they have been able to present The PA and government, on June 12, detected a significant amount of non-compliant samples, approximately 3 billion liters, or 5% of all road diesel.
“After presenting this finding, the ANP accepted and integrated the relevant information and acted effectively during the inspection,” the letter reads.
“As a result, significant results can be observed over the past month. Fuel samples analyzed by the Legal Fuel Institute’s ‘Mystery Shopper’ program showed no irregularities in the biodiesel blend in the diesel, marking an important advance in quality control.” , he added.
The ANP said that the ANP’s inspection actions on the fuel market will continue as normal throughout the country during the suspension of the quality monitoring program.
“The fuel samples collected in these actions will be analyzed by the ANP laboratory, the Center for Research and Technological Analysis (CPT), located in Brasilia,” the agency specified.
The ANP highlighted that, in addition to the PMQC, inspection actions use other intelligence vectors, such as product movement data, complaints to the ANP Ombudsman and information from other public bodies to carry out assertive planning, identify places with signs of irregularities and focus actions on them.
According to the ANP, contracts with PMQC laboratories will remain in place, suspended only during November and December. “Two compensatory months of suspension will be added to the expiration of each contract,” he added.
Source: Terra
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