Unleaded fuel in Western Sahara?
 

Is it possible to buy unleaded fuel in Western Sahara (or maybe it is Saharan Morocco)?

I have read that in sub-saharan Africa they use only unleaded now (Mauritania and further south). Can somedbody confirm it?

Hi,

yes, that's true, no unleaded south of marocco. Therefore it's cheap: 0.65 DH/liter in Western Sahara ;-)

I don't know about the situation now, but in January I had problems to get petrol at all in Mauretania. Maybe it was just because of the Dakar Rallye.

Cheers
Theo

HI ! If you follow the atlantic route you got Unleaded in :

(plenty of it until Marrakech )
Chiouaoua
Agadir (please note that there are 200km of hills , etc.. without unleaded beetween them , so Its easy to run-out)
Tan TAn (please note that the "3 petrol station of tarfaya" DONT sell unleaded
Layounne
Boujour (They sell unleaded , BUT with a big nozzle , so It won't fit in most cars fill up holes )
Ah-Dakla (they "had" , but they run out )

After that , there's no a single unleaded pump , probbably until Nouachott . Definitely there's no one in Nouadibou.


Having said that , a car designed to run on unleaded ,will happilly run on leaded (Super) . It will ****up the catalityc converter ,but other than that , the car will run with no problem whatsoever.

Javier

Thank you for your replies.

Javier, when did you went the last time to Mauritania?

I have read that all sub-saharan countries use only unleaded now (on january 1st they changed from leaded only to unleaded only).
I found it here:
http://www.unep.org/pcfv/Documents/M...sSSA-Jun06.pdf

the main page is:
http://www.unep.org/PCFV/main/main.htm

Before 01.01.2006 all sub-saharan Africa was leaded only.

Actually I am not not afraid about the catalizator (which you need to pass the ITV) -I have a exhaust pipe without catalizator, which I will change before I go-
but about all the electrical components in my car (I wonder why modern cars have to be more electrical than a computer!) like the lamba detector (sonda lambda) and all those things.
As Chris wrote in his book "your car will also run on leaded, unless it is full of complicated electrical sensing".

Ha ha! That's a good one!

This is a fuel pump in Chinguetti - http://tinyurl.com/yle2ec . And it's the only reliably working pump in town, because it is not dependent on the failing power network, just a muscle operated manual handle.

I've been told that true to the spirit of the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles aimed at reducing vehicular air pollution in developing countries through the promotion of clean fuels and vehicles, the guy running the fuel station decided to go green.

So, he will now only sell environmently friendly uleaded. But to meet local demand for the traditional stuff on which every African car has run for ages, he will improve on the formula by mixing unleaded with brackish water, sand, rust flakes, used engile oil and goat urine in the usual proportions.

Have a good day and don't give up searching the web for other interesting UNEP proclamations.

hi !!
i have been n in Mauritania last month . I can assure you that Unleaded ( I mean "green" unleaded , ie fuel with 95 RON without lead , Its not availiable other than maybe in Nouatchott and probbably neither.
Definitely unavailable in Naouadibou . You will probbably struggle to get Super (Leaded 98) ´cos the only thing available is "Essence" (Leaded 92 RON)

All other countries (as of June 2006) they dont´sell unleaded at all . At least both Guineas , Sierra , Mali , Niger , (most of ) Senegal and most of Gambia . I simply can´t believe this "west Africa going unleaded" at all. -its simply not happening .

If at all , Id say that Africa is going diesel , and that most petrol stations are no longer selling petrol . Petrol is now only used for mopeds , and generators , and mostly only sold in Conveniences Stores (in Yellow plastic drums ) .Most Mauritanian petrol stations , simply only stock and sell diesel..

Havin said that , that Lambda sensor has nothing to do with the leaded / unleaded thing .It measures the oxygen avaliable in a gas (hence how rich/poor the fuel/air ratio is ) because catalithic converters are destroyed by alcanes (i.e. any free simply hidrocarbon , such as unburnt fuel -heptane/octane). so , in order to keep the cat converter safe , they need to minimize the amount of unburnt fuel , hence monitoring the oxygen . As long as there is oxygen , there is not probbably unburnt fuel , and the EFI can just put a little more fuel on it.

but leaded fuel has nothing to do with this. It will fu$%%ckup the converter , but definitely not the lambda sensor at all.

If you can live with screwing up your cat-converter , then your car is gonna drive , better , longer , and probbably faster using leaded fuel . I wouldnt worry at all about that

Have a nice day
Javier

>>>So, he will now only sell environmently friendly uleaded

Well ,this is a common misconception

There is nothing "green" about unleaded . The only enviromental thing about this is that it lets you drive a car with a catalithyc converter without poisoning (killing) it .
The "green" thing in cars is the converter . This is what makes nowdays cars "greener" . Unfortunately all these platinum/pallaidum cathalist in the cat-converter are destroyed in presence of lead.hence the need lead-free petrol .

in other words , a Peugeot 505 petrol is as toxic using leaded than Unleaded. The only benefit of unleaded is that lets you run cars using catalyzers .

Javier

I wonder why the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles says that all sub-saharan Africa is unsing unleaded now, as there is only leaded?????

Yes, definitely, leaded fuel is better for the engine, but not for the catalitic converter, and what I am afraid about, the electronic parts.

It seems that I will have to stock up (especially in Mauritania), if there is no gasoline at the pumps.

BTW, do you know, if in places like Atar or Ayoun is possible to find gasoline?

Or maybe somebody will sell me diesel for sans plomb.

Is this relly true :"So, he will now only sell environmently friendly uleaded. But to meet local demand for the traditional stuff on which every African car has run for ages, he will improve on the formula by mixing unleaded with brackish water, sand, rust flakes, used engile oil and goat urine in the usual proportions."?

WELL , you can probbably find petrol in Ayoun and in Atar . Even from some odd petrol station. I woulndt worry at all about the quality of the fuel (well , not that much )
The biggest issue is that as less and less petrol is sold in Mauritnaia , Petrol is no longer sold in petrol stations , and is more commonly found in convenience stores , sold in Yellow plastic drums

These vendors , more often than not , they mix petrol with oil , as most of the petrol is gonna be used in mopeds , generators , etc.. so you could find yourself filling up with petrol and oil mix .

while this is not particularly bad at all , your mileage will vary , and definitely your car will make a nasty smelling white smoke in the exhaust .Other than that .. will run ok .

Electronics dont really care at all about which fuel are you filling up.All electronic management units have knock sensors in the block , so they can advance the timing just before knocking . Using leaded petrol -which is a bit higher RON- will make the EFI computer to advance the timing a bit , and hence getting more horsepower , etc..

Regarding the story about petrol being mixed with water , sand , etc.. I dont believe it at all . African petrol may be dirtier , but that´s cos the storage facilities are dodgier. They wouldnt do that on purpose.

have a nice day

Thank you Javier.

Lead+oil=very eco-friendly

Having just driven through, Morrocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, and Burkina Faso since Nov 2006...on my bike.
The last time my bike got unleaded fuel was in Layouune, Western Sahara at an Atlas gas station there. Since then, its been leaded all the way. One of the pompeistes in Mali in January was mentioning that they were gonna going to Super instead of essense but I hadn't heard of unleaded. I couldn't find Super in Mali whereas everywhere else carried it.
Javier right's the leaded with thrash your catalytic converter(if you have one) and foul your sparkplugs earlier. Other than that, I haven't noticed anything else...
Hope this helps.

edde

What is the difference between Super and essense?

I would like to know this too, but nobody ever answered!

Super : => Premium (>97 RON LEADED)
Essence : =>Regular ( 92 RON LEADED)


Cheers