DPR to release new guidelines for LPG operations in Nigeria

By Roseline Okere |   16 May 2018   |   3:45 am  


The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), has unveiled plans to release new guidelines to govern Nigeria’s Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) sector.
  
To achieve this, DPR will embark on stakeholders’ engagement in the LPG industry with a view to fashioning new guides on life threatening issues being taken for granted by operators in the industry.
  
Zonal Controller, DPR, Lagos, Oluwole Akinyosoye, disclosed this in a presentation on safety in LPG operations, at the NIPCO Safety Week celebrations to commemorate the World Day for Safety & Health at Work, held in Lagos.

  
According to Akinyosoye, the guidelines would spell out truck loading specifications to ensure that operators have the right shut out valves, and are correctly installed.
  
He said DPR will soon issue out circulars regarding to loading and ancillary issues, saying: “you know better than us because you do it every day, and we may be theoretical in the way we do things, but we relate to all sectors of the industry. We also know where the shoes are pinching, and those guidelines we are fashioning out.” 
  
Recalling the sad experience of January 15, when one of the bottling plant operators lost huge investment, the DPR Controller enjoined both the investors and customers alike to adhere strictly to safety rules to avert such incidence in the future.
  
He said NIPCO has exhibited exemplary behaviour in the area of safety and operations generally, noting, “I have not received any negative report on the company, and am saying that with all sense of responsibility.”
  
The Controller, who gave a pat on the back to NIPCO management for the high level of safety consciousness and excellent housekeeping, said the feat has given credence to the receipt of best compliant HSE terminal in the Nigeria Port Authority awards consecutively in the past six years. 
  
“We are today talking to NIPCO; we are going to engage other players in the industry as well, we have started engaging NNPC as well, to ensure we don’t just load the products, but ensure that those trucks are fit for purpose. 
  
“If you load trucks that is not fit for purpose, and there is an explosion in your facility, God forbids, on the way to the plants, or at the plants, it will be on record that the truck loaded from your company, that is why we are looking at the LPG guidelines once again,” he pointed out.
  
Akinyosoye also commended the management for investing in infrastructure for commercial gas in Nigeria.
  
He used the opportunity to launch the NIPCO Safety Pamphlet, designed to guide users of LPG as domestic cooking fuel in a safe manner, as a corporate social responsibility initiative, and enjoined all stakeholders to keep safe at all times.
  
Earlier, while declaring open the Safety Week, NIPCO Managing Director, Sanjay Teotia, described good Health Safety and Environment (HSE) performance is an integral part of efficiency in the downstream sector of Nigeria’s oil industry.
 
He reiterated management’s commitment to sustain the safety culture, which has manifested in zero incidents and fatality in the entire 14 years of its operations adding that the HSE policy of company is hinged on prevention of injury to employees, assets, and environment.

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