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The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Eket Field Office, Akwa Ibom, has sealed eight filling stations for discharging petroleum products while sales were on in the state.
The Operations Controller of DPR in the state, Mr Tamunoiminabo Kingsley-Sundaye, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Eket on Friday.
Kingsley-Sundaye said that the offence was committed in July.
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He added that the department had also sealed one Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) plant for unsafe practice.
“You have to discharge petroleum products and complete the discharging before you sell.
“If you are selling products, you don’t discharge and if you are discharging you don’t sell.
“Filling stations should not carry out that kind of two sensitive activities together; one must step down for the other one,’’ he said.
He said that in spite of warnings and sensitisations of operators of filling stations, they still discharge petroleum products and equally selling to the public at the same time.
The controller said that the guidelines and operational procedures of oil and gas facility required that operators of filling stations could not carry out two sensitive activities simultaneously.
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He described such operations as inappropriate, noting that the act was dangerous not only to their properties but to the public as well.
According to him, the culprits will be referred to the Federal Fire Service Authority for training, in order to make them realise the danger inherent in the acts.
He said that 75 per cent of the fire disasters were often caused when filling stations carry out such acts simultaneously.
Kingsley-Sundaye appealed to the operators of petrol stations and LPG plants to desist from carrying out the activities simultaneously in oil and gas facilities.
He said that the DPR had again observed unsafe practices by gas operators, who were doing retail businesses in recent times.
“We observed recently some unsafe practices by people doing reselling of LPG.
“This trend has also gotten to the LPG plants facility in petrol filling stations, where some of them are doing discounting.
“Such act would not be allowed.
“It is not allowed in any DPR license facility,’’ Kingsley-Sundaye added.
He said that the illegal LPG plant would be sealed for a minimum of one month, followed by other sections, to avoid the loss of life.
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