Whats the latest on Unleaded in West Africa.
 

Could anyone who has been in Ghana recently remember if they have seen unleaded petrol for sale. I will be using a petrol stove which runs much better if it can get unleaded and this time i will be carrying a Honda 4 stroke generator with alternator to keep my fridge battery topped up when not travelling. Honda state only unleaded for this. At the moment it looks as if the last place on my route where i can get unleaded is Morocco and western sahara. At worst I could stock up there, but if i can get some in any of the following: Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso and most importantly Ghana it would help a lot.
All advice i have seen so far states no unleaded in West Africa at all. So i really need info from people who have travelled overland via my intended route to give an update please.

it's pretty much everywhere. where are you getting your advice?

Dougies seen it.
 

Hi Dougie, i did a search for "unleaded" in sub saharan Africa and it mentioned there was none in WA. Where have you found it mate?.

Sorry it didnt say that. What i was reading was the long post about prices of fuel in africa and so when i didnt see a mention of unleaded in other than Morocco western sahara Tunisia etc i assumed it still wasnt available elswhere..

hmm.. pretty sure I was putting unleaded in the tank. Morocco, Mauri, Senegal, Gambia, Mali, Niger, Burkina, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Chad. Apart from one stretch in Mauri, it was every 200 miles at least.

2005, but I doubt they'll have taken the pumps away.

Thanks Dougie, I thought it was about time it reached the dark continent. Just could not find anywhere on the hubb where anyone had actually confirmed it. 8 weeks to go.

:clap:

no worries. enjoy your trip.

"Sans plomb" is readily available in Morocco yes. After that, I have no idea where DougieB got his fuel. Because when I was there less than a year ago, "sans plomb ?" would always be followed by a shaking of heads.

Didn't go to Ghana so I wouldn't know about the situation there.

prepared to be correct. but then that leaves me thinking leaded or unleaded, it makes no difference to a bike engine. as the number of newer bikes (which have been unleaded for years anyway) riding through west africa is quite high. Do KTM's (togo?) really run on four-star? are we getting confused with low-octane and 95 octane unleaded?

although I'm pretty sure Dakhla and the end of the Tambacounda/Bamako stretch I had a sans plomb conversation and got some. though I never tasted it, and a green labelled pump with sans plomb writing doesn't actually mean that's what's pumping into your tank.

There are still obviously conflicting views on this issue so lets have input from any other overland travellers who have travelled through West Africa please.

?c?

Just found the following statement from Tim Culliss 2 days ago.
"Most of the vehicles in West Africa are either diesel or very old petrol engines. I didn't see any unleaded for sale.

Tim"

The vast majority of Africa, including most of sub saharan west Africa had banned leaded petrol by the start of this year according to the two attached UNEP sources.

http://www.unep.org/pcfv/PDF/LeadReport-Brochure.pdf

http://www.unep.org/pcfv/PDF/MapSSAf...ad-Feb2008.pdf

In Morocco you can buy both unleaded and leaded because the Moroccans, along with a few other North African states havent yet banned leaded petrol. In principle most of the fuel you buy in West Africa should therefore be unleaded, although not always of good quality. You will often also get large variations in the octane rating outside capital cities. Most pumps will also not make any mention of unleaded fuel and will only display the sign 'essence'.

Hence the reason you generally always get a blank look if you ask for 'sans plumb' is because there is no choice - it should IN PRINCIPLE only be unleaded. Although as Dougie correctly mentioned, often you will have no idea of what is actually flowing into your tank.....

Hi,

my experience from driving Morocco - Westsahara - Mali - Burkina - Niger - Benin - Togo:

NO UNLEADED PETROL SOUTH OF AL AYOUN (Westsahara).

I drove in 2007.

so, for the people who didn't manage to find unleaded and therefore drove through west africa (4000/6000 miles?) on leaded. What did you drive, what happened to your valve seats?

Agree with Matt as to why 'sans plomb' would get blank stares, if as we suspect it all is lead free. I think in WA you tend to look for high octane ratings as the primary piece of information about the fuel you're buying. Which is nothing to do with lead.

confused.... surely there must be someone in WA right now, photo of a petrol pump (at a station, not a roadside glass jar)?

I drove a Range Rover 4.6 HSE.

My garage told me that the catalyser would get clogged and start burning, if I used leaded fuel on that car.

The truth is: the car is still driving in WA today, after more than 10.000km on leaded fuel.

And: every local in WA is driving a European (or Japanese) car on leaded petrol without problems.

.. or you just didn't realise you were using unleaded?

your cat would be damaged on leaded fuel. the internet says Ghana's Tema refinery phased out leaded fuel in 2004.

also back in 2003, Africa on track for phasing out leaded fuel by 2006

"Following a meeting in Nairobi on 17 October, three additional Sub-Saharan nations have become the latest to join an effort to rid the continent of leaded road vehicle fuel. Ethiopia, Ghana, and Mauritania have announced that they have set a date of January 2004 for phasing out lead from their fuel.

The continent is now on track for a complete phase out by 2005 or early 2006 in the case of some countries, such as South Africa. The move is being orchestrated by the Partnership for Clean Vehicles and Fuels, founded at the August 2002 World Summit on Sustainability held in Johannesburg (see related story). The group's members have pledged nearly US$2.5 million for the project."

... it is of course possible that they have changed to UNLEADED fuel all over WA, without really knowing it themselves.

When I asked at the bigger petrol stations in Westsahara, I was told that there was only leaded fuel south of Al Ayoun. I discussed the same in Mali with a car mechanic. And when I asked at one of the biggest overland stores in Germany, they told me the same.

However, as you quote, and as can be read on Gasoline - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, officially, there is no more leaded fuel in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Whatever the truth is: a car traveller needn't worry. The car will work on either leaded or unleaded in the same way (just take out - or kill - the cat).

Hi Guys!

In 2006 there was no unleaded fuel after the last station in Maroc.

If you're not have a cat you run without problems. Leaded fuel is NOT bad for the engine (only for the cat)

The other thing is the quality. Older Bikes with lower compression can run much worse quality than new bikes with high compression. (except you have a new GS with a sensor for bad fuel....)


So the best solution is: old bike without cat.

I really don't know how many times our GS's run with high % of diesel or water;-))
and they're still running well!


Greetings from Perth werner+Claudia

The basic premise of buying petrol everywhere in West Africa (ie anywhere below Western Sahara) is that there is no choice between leaded and unleaded. Your only option is to go to the pump that sells 'essence' and stick it in. The only choice you may have is the octane rating, but this choice is generally limited to large service stations in capital cities.

According to the UNEP, and the other sources on this thread, all the petrol you buy should only be unleaded as all the countries in West Africa have now phased out leaded. You would also expect that given most fuel distribution in the region is controlled by large oil companies (normally Total in Francophone areas) then the oil companies should be complying with the requirement to only sell unleaded.

Buying petrol in jerry cans in more remote areas is a different story entirely....

Matt and everyone else, thanks for your input. Its seems logical that if a country has only unleaded being delivered to their pumps they ain't going to suddenly start calling it essence sans plomb to them its still essence. They are probably unaware there has been any change at all.

Did i really say logical and African countries in the same sentence. Well i am going in the belief i can get unleaded for my brand new generator and damn the consequences.
:D

Interesting, we went from Morocco to Mali through Western Sahara, Mauri, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinee in Jan - May of this year.

The green labels for unleaded disapeared just south of Laayoune. They sold unleaded and also sold super in Laayoune which made me believe that unleaded would disappear in place of leaded (super). The guy assured me that there was no unleaded but only super in the desert.

We didn't see the green unleaded labels until Bamako. We had bikes with no cats so we didn't care but we are about to do the trip again in petrol 4x4s and I had the cats removed...perhaps I shouldn't have. I had read on the internet that leaded was supposed to be phased out but seeing as it's Africa, I just figured it hadn't. Some people had had problems with leaded fuel and their catalytic converters but that information might have been quite old.

I did speak to a man in western sahara that had been running his unmodified peugeot essence on super for a while and said that he had no problems.

If someone gets a definitive answer on this, I'd be interested.

Good luck,

Gael

I posted on an almost identical thread on the 4 wheel section, to cut a long story short I was told by the MD of one of Ghana's independent fuel companies (Allied Oil) that all the petrol in Ghana is unleaded. We buy one tanker load per month from them for our few petrol vehicles - all of which are modern, no problem! I have run the petrol in my Honda 4 stroke outboard for a good while - no problem! It is most definately unleaded, and the numerous modern vehicles in Accra (including two lunatics with Aston Martin DB9 s) don't appear to be suffering.
Gil

Many thanks Gilghana1, thats what i have been hoping for, someone in Ghana with positive news on this subject.
:thumbup1: