Enemalta replaced heating oil in January

Enemalta stopped selling light heating oil, which was in breach of EU directives because of its high sulphur content, 10 months after it was flagged as a major issue of concern by an internal company dossier.

An Enemalta spokesman said light heating oil stopped being sold altogether in January and was replaced by heating gas oil with a sulphur content of 0.1 per cent.

In March 2008 an internal Enemalta dossier drawn up by management said the light heating oil provided by the corporation was in breach of EU directives because it had a sulphur content that was higher than 0.2 per cent.

The sulphur content of light heating oil had dropped to below 0.2 per cent around last November, the spokesman said, only to be replaced outright in January by gas oil that was in line with EU directives.

Gasoil for heating purposes currently retails at 65c per litre.

The dossier was prepared just two days before the general election to provide a new government with a comprehensive overview of Enemalta outlining the state of play, the issues at stake and recommendations. Along with other sections of the dossier, the information that light heating oil breached EU directives was intentionally blacked out by the Investments Ministry before it published the report on its website last week.

The blacked out sections were, however, still accessible by a simple cut and paste procedure.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com