As Nigeria accelerates efforts to expand natural gas utilisation under its Decade of Gas and energy transition agenda, concerns over gas-related accidents, inadequate public awareness and weak safety enforcement remain significant challenges. From domestic cooking gas to compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles and industrial gas infrastructure, improving safety requires more than regulations; it demands professional training, public education, reliable incident reporting and stronger collaboration among regulatory and enforcement agencies.
In this interview, Emmanuel Peter of Valuechain Energy Magazine speaks with Dr. Sunday Kanshio, Founder and Managing Partner of Fleissen & Company Limited, about practical measures for reducing gas-related accidents, closing regulatory gaps, and promoting responsible gas utilisation. He also highlights the need for better data collection, continuous driver training and industry-wide professional standards to build public confidence in Nigeria’s growing gas economy.
Kindly tell us about yourself and your professional background.
Thank you for this opportunity. I am the Managing Partner of Fleissen & Company Limited and oversee its sister companies, including Fleissen Events and Fleissen Energy.
I hold a PhD in Oil and Gas Engineering, with a primary background in chemical engineering. I have spent about 20 years working in the oil and gas industry, mainly as a consultant supporting companies in solving technical and operational challenges. These include greenhouse gas management, process engineering, facility assessment, oil and gas measurement, hydrocarbon accounting and gas development.
My experience also extends to academia. I left Baze University in 2021, where I was a senior lecturer in petroleum and gas engineering, to focus fully on industry development and pricing.
Fleissen & Company is an engineering and management consultancy that supports the oil and gas and broader energy industries. Our work includes greenhouse gas management, measurement, audits, hydrocarbon accounting and helping companies select appropriate metering technologies. We also support organisations interested in gas development by assessing projects and assisting with front-end engineering activities.
Our sister company, Fleissen Events, organises conferences, including the Nigeria Hydrocarbon Conference, the Gas Safety Conference and other industry events, including those focused on pipelines. These activities reflect our commitment to addressing critical challenges in the energy sector.
At the recently concluded Gas Safety Conference, you noted that gas itself is not inherently dangerous, but that human error, improper handling and weak compliance contribute to many incidents. What behavioural changes and daily handling practices are you prioritising to address this problem?
You are right that gas-related risks often stem from how it is handled. The specific risks vary across the value chain, from production to end use. For example, consider a driver transporting CNG from a loading point to a refuelling station. One major risk is reckless driving. Continuous training is essential to ensure that drivers understand the importance of safe driving because an accident involving a CNG truck can result in fatalities.
Substance abuse is another concern. Drivers transporting gas must not drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Regular drug testing is therefore critical for those responsible for transporting gas.
Household use presents a different challenge. People who use gas for cooking need continuous education on safe handling practices to reduce the risk of explosions. Unfortunately, public education on gas safety remains inadequate.
Government should use every available communication channel, including traditional media, social media platforms and WhatsApp, to educate the public. As event organisers, Fleissen Events can support these efforts by delivering safety messages through different platforms and forums.
We have already produced an educational video in Hausa explaining how to respond to a kitchen gas fire and extinguish it safely. We believe that this kind of awareness campaign can help reduce unsafe practices.
With LPG adoption growing among low-income households and local communities where safety awareness may be limited, what targeted public education campaigns or community-level safety models should regulators and operators deploy?
Nigeria is a multilingual country, so public education must be delivered through several channels. These include social media, mainstream media, particularly radio, places of worship and gas distribution outlets.
Gas distributors can regularly provide safety information and distribute flyers to customers. They should also display visual safety signs in strategic locations that explain essential precautions, including how to operate gas equipment safely.
Government agencies, regulators, and the National Orientation Agency at both federal and state levels need to sustain these efforts.
When gas-related fires occur, they can create fear and discourage people from using LPG, causing some households to return to charcoal and firewood. These fuels are generally less efficient and can also have adverse health and environmental consequences. Effective public education is therefore important not only for safety but also for sustaining public confidence in cleaner cooking fuels.
You also highlighted that many accidents involving LPG, CNG, LNG and pipelines go unreported. How seriously does the lack of reliable data affect policymaking, and what reporting frameworks or mandatory disclosures are needed to address the problem?
Many accidents go unreported, and the government needs to establish simpler ways for people to report incidents. Hospitals are an important starting point because people injured in gas-related accidents are likely to seek medical treatment there.
The government could establish a reporting framework requiring hospitals, including private facilities, to notify the relevant authorities when they treat patients whose injuries are suspected to be gas-related. Dedicated telephone and WhatsApp numbers could make this process easier.
Reports should not necessarily require patients’ names. Basic information about the incident, its location, the suspected cause and the number of people affected could be sufficient for initial reporting.
For instance, a hospital could send a voice note stating that several patients have been admitted with burns following a suspected LPG explosion in a residential building. The hospital could provide its location and other relevant details without disclosing unnecessary personal information.
This approach would reduce the burden of preparing written reports. Technology can also help convert voice recordings into usable data. Government should establish multiple reporting channels, including WhatsApp, telephone hotlines, text messages and social media platforms. Toll-free lines would encourage reporting by removing concerns about call charges. People should also be able to leave voice messages when an operator is unavailable.
The information collected could be analysed to identify patterns and guide interventions. If the data show that many accidents result from improper domestic gas handling, the government can increase public education and training in that area. If driver behaviour is a major cause, authorities can strengthen driver training, drug testing and vehicle safety inspections.
Without reliable data, it is difficult to plan, make informed decisions or correct existing problems. Reporting systems should therefore operate at federal, state and local levels.
At Fleissen, we also intend to establish platforms, including a website, to collect and analyse relevant information. We have the personnel and capacity to do this without waiting for a dedicated government budget. Our objective is to interpret the information promptly, communicate the findings to the authorities and support appropriate action.
While the government promotes gas adoption under Nigeria’s Decade of Gas and Energy Transition agenda, you have argued that supporting safety systems is lagging. Where are the most critical gaps in regulatory enforcement, and which agencies need to act most urgently?
Several agencies have responsibilities relating to gas safety. These include the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), vehicle inspection authorities, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the police and the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC). Each has a distinct mandate.
The challenge is that agencies may not always understand the regulations and requirements administered by other institutions. For example, police officers or environmental protection officials may encounter gas installations without knowing the specific NMDPRA requirements governing their location or operation.
Relevant agencies need to understand the regulations, standards and approvals that apply to the facilities and activities they oversee. This would allow them to identify violations and enforce compliance within their respective mandates.
Regulators cannot independently monitor every facility across a country as large as Nigeria. Other enforcement agencies can help bridge that gap if they understand the relevant rules and know what to look for.
The same principle applies to CNG vehicles. The Standards Organisation of Nigeria establishes applicable standards for equipment, while the NADDC is involved in approving centres that convert vehicles to CNG. Road safety officers and vehicle inspection officials need to understand these requirements so they can identify potentially unsafe conversions.
For instance, when inspecting a CNG vehicle, an officer should be able to verify the relevant documentation and determine whether the conversion was carried out at an approved centre.
This requires information-sharing and cooperation among agencies. The authorities responsible for enforcing road safety need access to relevant standards and information about approved conversion centres.
That is one reason we bring stakeholders together through the Gas Safety Conference. We want agencies to understand how their mandates intersect and how cooperation can strengthen enforcement.
It is not enough to single out one regulator and expect it to address every problem. Each institution must perform its responsibilities while collaborating with others where their mandates overlap.
Safety challenges differ significantly across CNG for transportation, LNG and domestic cooking gas. How should regulatory oversight adapt to address these risks simultaneously?
Regulations must keep pace with changing industry practices. Regulators need to review their requirements regularly to ensure they reflect emerging technologies, operating conditions and safety risks.
For example, I was recently informed that some people are installing two gas cylinders in their vehicles. This raises questions about whether existing standards adequately address such configurations.
If regulations were originally developed around vehicles carrying a single cylinder, authorities need to assess the implications of installing two cylinders. They must consider cylinder capacity, vehicle design, weight, load requirements and other relevant safety factors.
A small Toyota, for instance, should not be allowed to carry a cylinder configuration that exceeds what the vehicle can safely accommodate.
Where new practices emerge, regulators should assess the risks and clarify what is permissible. If a configuration can be used safely, the applicable requirements should be clearly established. If it cannot, appropriate restrictions should be enforced.
Without regular reviews, operators may adopt practices that fall outside existing safety requirements. Keeping regulations current is essential for ensuring that innovation does not undermine public safety.
Your conference seeks to strengthen Nigeria’s gas safety system and support the expansion of the gas economy. What key actionable resolutions emerged from discussions with regulators, safety professionals and industry operators?
Several important issues emerged from the discussions. One clear priority was the need for gas companies to institutionalise driver training.
Driver training featured prominently because of concerns about the preparedness and competence of people transporting gas. Based on information discussed at the conference, Greenfuel was identified as an example of a company with a driver training school.
Participants expressed the need to expand such initiatives and establish more opportunities for drivers to receive professional training.
Government should also deliberately support the training of professional drivers. There were other resolutions as well, but driver training was one of the key priorities that emerged.
How do Fleissen Events and its partner stakeholders intend to track and measure whether operators and regulatory bodies fulfil their safety commitments?
Let me clarify that the company responsible for organising the conference is Fleissen Events, not Fleissen & Company. They are separate companies. Our objective through Fleissen Events is to lead the conference and monitor progress on the commitments made under the National Declaration introduced when the conference began in 2024.
In 2026, we intend to publish the declaration on our website and independently track developments relating to its implementation. We do not want to rely solely on companies to tell us what they are doing. We will monitor publicly available information and assess progress independently.
As the next conference approaches, we will also contact companies to obtain information about their activities. We will compare the information they provide with our independent findings and use the results to develop a scorecard measuring progress against the declaration.
We have already analysed the declaration and assessed its implementation against developments in the industry. There is still considerable room for improvement.
We can also engage regulators such as the NMDPRA, which may have incident reports relating to facilities under their oversight. Such information, where available and appropriately disclosed, can help us assess safety performance and identify areas requiring further action.
Our intention is to use evidence to determine whether commitments are being fulfilled and where additional intervention is needed.
Do you have any final thoughts?
What we are doing goes beyond advocacy. Our objective is to professionalise the industry.
Everyone working in the gas sector should be properly trained for their role. A driver should be a professional driver, just as a gas plumber should be a professionally trained gas plumber.
Fleissen & Company is involved in training across different aspects of the gas value chain, including the downstream sector, with training opportunities in the upstream sector as well. We want to build professional capacity so that workers can perform their duties safely and respond appropriately when problems arise.
We also encourage companies that have invested in the oil and gas industry to support the Nigerian Gas Safety Conference. Gas is critical to Nigeria’s energy future, but safety concerns can discourage people from adopting it.
When people lose confidence in gas, consumption can suffer. This can affect gas demand and, in turn, investment and production across the energy value chain. These consequences can negatively affect the wider economy.
We therefore urge stakeholders to support the Nigerian Gas Safety Conference and work together to improve safety across the sector. Preparations for the next conference are underway, and the date will be announced soon.