EL-SEN reported that over the past 13 days, 36 fuel pumps and 5 injectors at the Teknecik Power Plant malfunctioned, costing around 2 million TL. They believe these problems began after a large transfer of 12,000 tons of fuel oil on July 26th, which they suspect was of low quality. Before this “bad” fuel arrived, similar malfunctions had only occurred twice in the previous seven months.
The union has requested that the current fuel and any new shipments be tested by an independent lab, and they want a representative from EL-SEN involved in this process. When the local news outlet Yeniduzen asked for the test results of the fuel from the company TPIC, both KIB-TEK management and the Ministry of Energy’s Fuel Unit refused to share them.
Pasha dismissed EL-SEN’s claims as “gossip“, questioning what analysis they had conducted to determine that the fuel was bad. He asserted that the fuel was purchased according to specifications from Turkish Petroleum International Corporation (TPIC) and that all necessary tests were conducted, with no issues found in the last 20 months under the agreement between Turkey and North Cyprus.
When asked if the test results would be made public, Pasha replied that it was EL-SEN’s responsibility to prove their claims and urged against creating chaos without evidence. He confirmed that the analysis results are held by KIB-TEK and the Fuel Unit, but they would not be shared with the press. Requests for these results should be directed to the Fuel Unit.
Meanwhile, Mehmet Coşkun, Head of the Fuel Unit, confirmed that tests were done at SGS Laboratories and that no substandard fuel had been received recently. He suggested that the malfunctions might be related to the use of “bottom products” due to the ship’s inability to keep up with high demand during July and August.
In this context, “bottom products” refers to the heavier, less refined, and lower-quality fractions of fuel that remain at the bottom of a fuel storage tank or shipment. These are the remnants left after the more refined and higher-quality fuel has been used or extracted.
Using “bottom products” can lead to issues in machinery, such as clogged filters, damage to fuel pumps, or malfunctioning injectors, because this fuel may contain more impurities, sediments, or have inconsistent combustion properties. This can result in the kind of equipment malfunctions reported at the Teknecik Power Plant.
Meanwhile, EL-SEN has labelled the situation as “sabotage“, claiming that the issues at Teknecik Power Plant were caused by poor-quality fuel that was brought in without proper bidding or independent inspection, leading to the costly malfunctions.
