Smuggling: DPR gives marketers December deadline to migrate to DRMS

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has given filling station owners up till December 31, to migrate their operations to its Downstream Remote Monitoring System (DRMS).

Mr Sarki Auwalu, Director, DPR, gave the ultimatum during a meeting between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and agencies in the petroleum sector on Thursday in Lagos.

The DRMS, also known as e-Station, is an inventory and regulatory tool that tracks product levels across retail outlets and depots. The system also tracks the movement of products from depot to retail outlets.

He said this became imperative to track products in order to curb cross border smuggling and diversion of products.

He noted that out of the 33,000 retail outlets registered with the DPR, only about 6,700 have migrated to the platform.

He warned that any outlet which failed to comply with the directive would have its license withdrawn and would not be allowed to load petroleum products at the depots.

Auwalu added that the move would also go a long way to complement the efforts of sister agencies in their bid to regulate the industry.

“We want every marketer to migrate into this platform and each of them will have their unique ID to monitor their activities,” he said.

Other agencies at the meeting included the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency and the Petroleum Equalisation Fund Management Board.

Earlier, Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa, Chairman, EFCC, stressed the need for synergy and collaboration among agencies in the petroleum sector to tackle the issue of oil theft.

Bawa, who spoke through the Director of Operations, EFCC, Mr Abdulkerim Chukkol, said the agency was saddled with the investigation of financial and economic crimes.

He said the oil and gas industry was the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy hence the duty of the commission to protect the nation’s resources.

On their parts. Mr Ahmed Bobboi, Executive Secretary, PEF Management Board, Mr Abdulkadir Saidu, Executive Secretary, PPPRA and Mr Musa Lawan, Managing Director, PPMC, commended the DPR for the initiative.

They called for more engagements between the agencies and leveraging on the DRMS platform to achieve their mandates.

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