The World Bank is supporting a number of initiatives to rationalize the downstream oil sector of Sub-Saharan African countries. Such initiatives include the phasing-out of leaded gasoline (part of the pollution reduction programs), the harmonization of fuels technical specifications between countries in the same region, and the programs to improve urban air quality. This report examines ongoing visible malpractice and the lack of rigorous monitoring and implementing of accepted petroleum product standards in Sub-Saharan Africa in general, and especially in West Africa. Since many countries in the Gulf of Guinea are either supplied from Societe International de Raffinage (SIR) in Cote D'Ivoire or from Societe Africaine de Raffinage (SAR) in Senegal, and since Senegal serves its domestic market as well as those of Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mauritania, and Mali (and given the tense situation in Cote D'Ivoire), the report looks at the case of Senegal and SAR first, and then draws preliminary lessons from there, for the sub-region. Along with assessing the risk of malpractice in the downstream oil industry in Senegal, the report takes stock of the current processes and procedures to prevent, monitor, and punish abuses
and proposes an adapted detailed action plan to improve them. This work focuses on the automotive fuels and the industrial diesel oil, excluding the fuel oils and butane present on the Senegalese market.