The National Department of Standards of Afghanistan has reported that it returned two tanker trucks worth of oil products with a volume of 120,000 liters from the port of Hairatan back to Uzbekistan. According to Radio Television of Afghanistan (RTA) English, the reason for this was the low quality of the imported refined products.
Furthermore, the National Administration of Standards sent back another 19 oil tankers from Sheikh Abu Nasr Farahi Port to Iran over their low-quality. The standards board once again asked Afghan businessmen to prevent the import of low-quality goods into the country.
In January of this year, it was reported that the Taliban returned more than 62 tons of low-quality oil to Uzbekistan through the Hairatan border point. In response to this, Uzbekneftgaz Chairman Bahadir Sidikov said the report was misinterpreted, and that the oil products returned by the Taliban was of high quality. Sidikov stated that the product was returned not because of its low quality, but because its standard isn’t available in Afghanistan.
“This new product was supposed to enter the Afghan market. Unfortunately, the first batch was sent back. But it’s a process. It will not be easy to enter every market. To prove the quality of this product, we sold 1,000 tons of the same diesel to Estonia last month. They received it as a “premium” and ordered 10,000 tons [more]. Currently, we are producing 10,000 tons of [oil] products. In addition, there are inter-governmental agreements,” commented Sidikov at that time.
