A post is being shared on social media claiming that the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has recently issued a warning to people not to fill petrol or diesel in vehicles to the maximum limit. This post claims that IOCL has warned people that due to the continuous rise in atmospheric temperatures, there is a risk of explosions due to overfilling of fuel in their vehicles. According to the post, IOCL has suggested people refill petrol up to the half tank and to keep room for air. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: IOCL warning informing people not to fill petrol or diesel in vehicles to the maximum limit.
Fact: IOCL did not issue any such warning message mentioning the risk of explosion due to the overfilling of petrol or diesel in vehicles. Denying these rumours spreading on social media, IOCL recently clarified that it is perfectly safe to fill fuel up to the maximum limit as specified by the manufacturer irrespective of winter or summer. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched to check whether the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) had issued any such warning message, it is found out that IOCL through a Facebook post on ‘09 April 2022’ issued a clarification regarding this warning message circulating on social media. IOCL confirmed the message to be fake and clarified that it is perfectly safe to fill fuel up to the maximum limit as specified by the manufacturer irrespective of winter or summer.
When the same news went viral on social media in 2018 and 2019, IOCL issued a statement confirming even then clarifying they did not issue any such warning message. IOCL in the statement said, “Automobile manufacturers design their vehicles considering all aspects of performance requirements, claims and ambient conditions with built-in safety factors. The maximum volume specified in the fuel tank for petrol/diesel vehicles is no exception. It is, therefore perfectly safe to fill the fuel in vehicles up to the full limit (max.) as specified by the manufacturer irrespective of winter or summer”.
Recently, similar posts are being widely shared on social media in the wake of some recent articles (here and here) about the explosion of a bike’s petrol tank in Andhra Pradesh. But there is no evidence to suggest that such an explosion had occurred because of the overfilling of petrol in the vehicle tank.
To sum it up, IOCL did not issue any warning to avoid filling petrol or diesel in vehicles to the maximum limit.
