Stakeholders in the oil and gas industry have said there is urgent need to promote safety in the sector. They spoke at a seminar organised by Navgas, in conjunction with Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and others, in Ikeja, Lagos at the weekend.
Navgas Terminal Manager in Apapa, Lagos Monday Adeoye said there was the need to focus on the effective handling of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), enjoining every one to join hands in boosting safety. He said it was for this that the firm holds the event every two years to boost their consciousness. This was the third event, he announced.
In his message DPR Director, represented by Dr Akin Musa, as Assistant Director, said standards and procedures were being reviewed to meet up with the ever-changing trends in the sector. He said there would more survelliance by the directorate to tackle errant firms. He said as new plants emerge, so DPR would increase its monitoring,, adding that defaulters would be punished. He praised Navgas for sponsoring the event, urging other operators to emulate its good gesture.
DPR Lagos Zonal Director Oluwole Akinyosoye, who spoke on ‘’Regulatory Compliance’’ said though gas consumption had grown astronomically in the 10 last years compared to kerosene, we were merely scratching the surface. Comparing the consumption of domestic gas in Senegal and other countries, he submitted that the rate of the product’s consumption in the country is small. However, he was optimistic that the market would deepen in the future.
He listed some of the benefits of gas over kerosene as its cheapness, and easy availability and that more Nigerians were taking to gas for their domestic use.
Even then, Akinyosoye warned that gas is more volatile, a reason stakeholders should make safety their watchword. DPR, he said, would always be strict on safety and that operators should self-regulate their operations. He told them that there were a lot of leakages in the system, a factor that led to incidents in the past. There were reports that product is being distributed to illegal operators, he said, warning that DPR would sanction anyone caught doing so.
Programme Manager National LPG Expansion Plan, Office of the Vice President Dayo Adesina also harped on safety. Noting that the sector has a lot of stakeholders, he called on relevant stakeholders to interact on how to boost safety and production. He added that the government would assist them through awareness creation, among others, to move the industry to the next level in the next 10 years. LPG, he noted, would be a game changer.
SOURCE: thenationonline.ng