By Shehu Umar ,
Minna
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in Niger State has called for caution among proprietors of liquefied gas selling outlets to end loss of lives and properties resulting from avoidable gas explosions.
The call for caution is coming as about 39 lives had been lost in the last five years across Nigeria as a result of gas explosion, wrong location of liquefied petroleum gas outlets and as well, refusal by proprietors to follow laid down procedures for establishing gas stations.
The Controller of Operations DPR office in Minna, Alhaji Abdullahi Isah Jankara, disclosed this during stakeholders’ meeting in his office on Thursday.
He explained that most of the LPG outlets management and their staff lacked enough training on how to adequately secure their stations.
“Explosions are as a result of mishandling gas cylinders, wrong location of liquefied gas outlets and the refusal by proprietors to follow laid down procedures to establish gas stations”, he said, adding that such disasters would always occur if handlers refuse to obey simple safety tips.
According to Abdullahi, “All the outlets must obey the regulations or their plants will be shut down henceforth wherever we see that safety tips were not put into considerations by proprietor of gas station because we cannot allow them to be killing people anyhow”.
Proprietors of gas stations in most parts of Nigeria and their staff, he said, could not as well be exonerated of blame from the disaster, which was about the highest in the oil and gas sector of the economy.
Abdullahi said that part of the objectives of the meeting was to “achieve zero accident” and ensure the attainment of culture of safety in all the outlets are henceforth complied with by proprietors of petroleum gas selling outlets.
The state Controller of Operations DPR office in Minna specifically told retailers to stop forthwith the practice of “Cylinder to cylinder refilling” which according to him, was very prone to explosion.
The Operations controller however said to ensure that proprietors adhered to Standard Operation Procedures (SOP), the DPR in Niger State has introduce an annual award for proprietors who adhere strictly to best safety rules.