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Reports reaching The Independent from some fuel stations countrywide say there is the influx of what can be termed as sub-standard and contaminated fuel on the market, which is being sold to unsuspecting motorists. Credible information available to The Independent say, the fuel hit the Ghanaian market in December last year and it is still in the system causing problems for fuel attendants country-wide. Investigations have established that, the suspected contaminated and sub-standard fuel has affected sales of fuel stations that have difficulties in pumping out fuel for sale to motorists. According to some fuel station managers, and pump attendants reporters of The Independent spoke to countrywide, the situation affected the pumping out of the fuel as the fuel pumps had difficulties in pumping them out. They told The Independent that, they detected this problem in December last year but attributed it initially to technical problems but later when the problem became widespread, there head offices were notified and subsequently found out that, the problem had to do with the sub-standard fuel that had hit the Ghanaian market. Corroborating the findings of investigations, spokesperson of Ghana Oil Company (GOIL), Star Oil Company (SOC), Total and Oando, who pleaded anonymity, confirmed the story when contacted to ascertain the veracity of the information available to The Independent. The told the Independent in separate interviews that, �yes the problem surfaced last December and it still persists at some filling stations,� adding that, they suspect that, the crude that was received by TOR was what created the problem as it was of poor quality. Confirming the problem to the Independent, a GOIL representative in the Volta Region told The Independent that, the situation led to artificial shortages and led to the formation of queues of vehicles in Ho, Kpando, Hohoe and other parts of the Volta Region, as the fuel pumps in those towns as a result of the problem could not pump out fuel for sale to vehicles. A spokesperson of Star Oil Company also confirmed the story in an interview with The Independent yesterday and also said the situation has been rectified with the topping up of quality fuel supplied them from TOR. Explaining further how this affected their operations, the spokespersons indicated that, due to its sub-standard nature, the fuel pumps, which operated with hydraulics, could not pump the fuel out, adding that, "till date some fuel stations still have fuel in their underground tanks, which cannot be pumped out." They said, this is because those stations involved do not have the money to order quality fuel from TOR to add to the low quality one. Some of the spokespersons said, the problem affected their outlets countrywide but said, they are gradually solving that problem. They also told The Independent that, the problem has crippled sales and operations of the station and has left them at their wits end. When Dr Kwame Ampofo, Chief Executive Officer of Tema Oil Refinery was contacted, he confirmed the story saying, �the matter came up at the monthly meeting of stakeholders in the oil industry last Tuesday.� He said, a committee has been put in place to investigate the matter to find out the source of the distribution of that low standard fuel, giving the assurance that, his outfit will soon put in place Quality Assurance measures where it would be unacceptable for such sub-standard products to hit the Ghanaian market.