Using obsolete oils has consequences for vehicles, humans, says expert

Relevant government agencies have been called upon to urgently intervene in stemming the sale of obsolete performance engine oils that have been flooding the Nigerian market for decades. Mr. Chika Ikenga, Group Managing Director Eunisell Group, made this call recently in Lagos in a statement.

According to him, the intervention will protect companies currently using engine oils for modern vehicles with standards applicable to trucks and cars manufactured as far back as the 1970s.“Management is largely unaware that their decision to cut operating costs by purchasing cheap, obsolete oils for their fleets have consequences-there are “hidden” costs on not only their bottom line, but also on environmental and infrastructural degradation.”

Ikenga stressed that companies can easily avoid incurring millions of Naira annually on vehicle maintenance and repairs because using obsolete service oils causes increased engine wear, catalyst poisoning and particulate filter blocking as well as increased piston deposits, degradation of low and high temperature properties and increased soot-related viscosity.

The costs on environmental and infrastructural degradation are even more staggering. “Without realising it, companies’ efforts to save money results in increased expenditure. This is tantamount to the popular axiom, ‘penny wise, pound foolish.’ This is entirely preventable.”

Mr. Ikenga, a chemist, highlighted the environmental and health damage to include pollution, by way of increased sulphur emissions from poor engine performance, affecting all strata of society with asthma and other chest ailments; oil leaks penetrating ground water, which in turn degrades available water supply, oil deposits in ground, fire hazards, reduced soil quality for agriculture and smoky engines reducing visibility, which portends danger to road users, increasing accident rates.

He called on the government to embark on a massive campaign to create awareness by educating fleet owners, mechanics and the industry, to raise vehicle industry standards, and adhere to the internationally recognised American Petroleum Institute (API) guidelines.

Eunisell Groups’ operations formally commenced in 1996. The company is the leading additives and transport chemicals company in Nigeria, supplying products solutions to a wide base of customers operating throughout Africa.