“Fake gasoline is extremely dangerous. For years, many people have asked why cars and motorbikes suddenly catch fire on the road, or why engines and machinery break down.”
Tô Lâm—then Việt Nam’s Minister of Public Security—said this in 2019 about the fake gasoline production and trading case involving the tycoon, Trịnh Sướng.
Concurrently, the group led by Sướng mixed chemicals, including ethanol, with real gasoline to produce more than 200 million liters of fake fuel. They sold around 188 million liters and made more than 151 billion đồng in illicit profits.
In 2021, Sướng was sentenced to 12 years in prison for “producing and trading counterfeit goods.”
Why It Matters: Suspicions about fake gasoline made by blending ethanol and other compounds into fuel had been reported by domestic media since the early 2000s.
In 2006, the Ministry of Science and Technology found cases in which “A90 gasoline was declared as A92 gasoline and sold at A92 prices,” amid multiple reports that fuel had been mixed with additives, affecting fuel quality and damaging motorbikes.
According to the ministry, “once ethanol is mixed into gasoline, it must be clearly declared as ethanol-blended gasoline and sold at a lower price than regular gasoline. It cannot be ambiguously sold to consumers.”
By 2011, amid a series of motorbike fires suspected of being linked to fuel, Thi Hồng Xuân, a lecturer at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Technology at Nông Lâm University in Hồ Chí Minh City, said that in addition to technical causes, gasoline quality was also a factor.
According to Xuân, “one cause of vehicle fires and explosions is poor-quality gasoline, including gasoline mixed with impurities such as ethanol or methanol that is circulating on the market.”
Latest Developments: Under Circular 50/2025 issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, starting June 1, 2026, all unleaded gasoline sold nationwide must be blended into E10 biofuel for use in gasoline-powered engines.
E10 gasoline is made by blending 90% conventional mineral gasoline with 10% bioethanol. This type of ethanol can be produced from common agricultural materials such as cassava, corn, or sugarcane.
Thạch Hãn wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on May 25, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine has the copyrights of the English translation.
