The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Abeokuta Field Office has threatened to impose sanctions on owners of “illegal” cooking gas skid operations and those who failed to comply with its provisions on operational safety in the State.
The DPR Controller of Operations, Mrs Muinat Bello-Zagi, gave the warning while speaking to newsmen in Abeokuta shortly after a meeting with the Cooking Gas Skid Proprietors Association of Nigeria (CGSPAN), Ogun State Chapter.
According to her, the association has about 400 members in the State, but their operations are not regularised and by extension illegal.
She said the regulatory body in the last two years, had been engaging gas skid operators, educating them on the need to conform with the laws and guidelines of gas skid operations.
Bello-Zaggi said although, the Federal government’s plan is to increase domestic usage of gas within the country, the DPR would not compromise safety in the process of encouraging people to use gas as an alternative to kerosene.
“We have been clamping down on them (illegal gas skid operators) even before now, we have sealed quite a number of skid gas operations that we perceive to be very unsafe and we will continue to seal them if they continue to operate in an unsafe manner,” she noted.
She vowed that the body would not hesitate to seal and prosecute any erring gas skid operator found violating their guidelines.
Her words, “We have been engaging them (gas skid operators) but we want to regularise their operations, we want it to be standardised in line with the aspiration of the government which is about increasing the domestic usage of gas within the country.
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“We have decided to meet with them, educate them, create awareness and let them understand our guidelines and we want them to conform. We even went further to proffer some solutions to some of the issues they raised.
“The concern is the spacing requirement, all of them did not meet it and we said the spacing requirement is necessary because it will help to avert danger if there is leakage of gas. The spacing will help leaked gas to diffuse before it is ignited and our requirement for spacing is that there must be 15 metres from the end of any tank of LPG to the boundary of any adjourning property and most of them said they are operating on very small pieces of land and we said no, that is not going to work, that is very unsafe.
“One of the things we told them is that they can come together and form an alliance, four or three of them can come together, it will help them, it will increase their profitability, it will reduce their risk and will continue to engage them.”
The Chairman of CGSPAN in Ogun State, Mr Surajudeen Bada, who spoke on behalf of the association, urged DPR to amend the laws and guidelines regulating gas skid operations, saying the same guideline and safety precautions that are used for gas plant operators cannot apply to gas skid operators.
Although Bada also emphasised the importance of safety in their operations, he insisted that the laws and guidelines the DPR is using for gas skid operations, according to him is the same for gas plants owners which he described as “illogical”.
He said, “We have always been cooperating with them but the problem that lies there is that we want DPR as a body to listen to us, to know that the skid operation is a new emergence in the scheme of things. The DPR is quoting the 1969 Act of Parliament.
“Yes, they are rolling out regulations, but to say that a 2.5 tons skid is the same thing as a plant is not logical anywhere. Our point is that a 2.5 tons capacity skid is not the same thing as those that are having 20 to 50 tons capacity and the same safety precautions cannot be taken. What we are saying is that DPR should involve a regulation for that sector (gas skid) of the industry,” Bada said.
In her response, however, the DPR controller said, “The new guidelines we have was reviewed last year, 2018, it is available on our website and that was the summary that we presented to them. That is what we have now and we are moving with the trend. We want them to obey the law and we shall continue to engage them.”
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