DPR charges oil, gas laboratory practitioners on quality

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has charged laboratory operators in the oil and gas industry on quality, saying reports and data emanating from their operations are used for policy guides and decision-making.

The DPR’s Director, Mordecai Ladan who gave this charge at the second Stakeholders’ Laboratory Workshop in Lagos, noted that as much as it is desired for Nigerian content development to drive the oil and gas sector, the issue of quality should not be compromised.

The DPR boss maintained that environmental investigations, data and reports from these laboratories guides policy formulations as well as informed project design with far reaching effects on the ecosystem and human lives.

Ladan, who was represented by the Head, Safety Health and Environment, DPR, Sibeudu Caroline, likened outcomes from these laboratory operators to a doctor’s diagnosis, saying as wrong diagnosis could lead to a patient’s death, so can inaccurate results lead to wrong critical industry decisions.

“It is therefore absolutely imperative that we cultivate the culture of diligence and quality in our practices, and therefore the workshop’s theme ‘Accurate Analytical Data, The Fulcrum for Reliable Scientific Investigation’ is apt,” he added.

Some of the laboratory operators expressed concerns about the low cost of jobs on the part of the International Oil Companies (IOCs) and how it can possibly affect quality of results.

Reacting to this was the Department’s Manager of Laboratory services, Agada Jerome, who observed that operators should form an association to facilitate uniform decisions under one umbrella.

He said that in the last two years since the maiden edition of the workshop in 2015 three companies have been sanctioned due to poor results analysis. “We want sustainability and independence, but we cannot talk about local content and put quality issues at the back stage, quality is key,” Agada reiterated.

Sibeudu cited high costs of material in doing business as the major challenge the operators have expressed as the costs of doing business are almost static. “But in all of that we are trying to make sure the quality does not drop,” she remarked.