The Department of Petro leum Resources (DPR) is to engage stakeholders in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) to fashion out new guidelines on high risk and life threatening practices being taken for granted by operators in the industry.
Zonal Controller, DPR, Lagos, Oluwole Akinyosoye, disclosed this in his presentation on safety in LPG operations at NIPCO Safety week celebration to commemorate World Day for Safety & Health at Work at the company’s premises on Dockyard Road, Lagos.
The Controller, who gave a pat on the back to NIPCO management for the high level of safety consciousness and excellent housekeeping exhibited by the company, said that the feat has given credence to the receipt of best compliant HSE terminal NPA awards consecutively in the past six years.
Akinyosoye said: “We are today talking to NIPCO, we are going to engage other players in the industry as well. We have started engaging NNPC as well to ensure we don’t just load the products but ensure that those trucks are fit for purpose.
“’If you load trucks that is not fit for purpose and there is an explosion in your facility, God forbids, on the way to the plants or at the plants, it will be on record that the truck loaded from your company, that is why we are looking at the LPG guidelines once again.”
He said correspondence will soon go to all operators on how to be up to speed with regards to loading and ancillary issues stressing “you know better than us because you do it every day and we may be theoretical in ways we do things but we relate to all sectors of the industry and we know where the shoes are pinching and those guidelines we are fashioning out.”
According to him, the guidelines would spell out what need to be in place before truck loads ,ensuring that they have the right shut out valves and correctly installed as well trucks being fit for purpose.
Recalling the sad experience of January 15, 2018 when one of the bottling plants operator lost huge investment, the DPR Controller enjoins both the investor and customers alike to adhere strictly to safety rules to avert such incident in future.
He said NIPCO has exhibited exemplary behaviour in the area of safety and their operations generally noting that , “I have not received any negative report on the company, and am saying that with all sense of responsibility.”
The Controller also commendable the management for the investment they have put in place in terms of infrastructure for commercial gas in Nigeria.
He launched the NIPCO safety pamphlet designed to guide users of LPG as domestic cooking fuel in a safe manner as a corporate social responsibility initiative and enjoined all stakeholders to keep safe at all times.
NIPCO Managing Director, Sanjay Teotia, while declaring open the Safety Week events, said  good Health Safety and Environment (HSE) performance is an integral part of efficiency in the downstream sector of the nation’s oil industry. He reiterated the commitment to sustain its safety culture which has manifested in zero incidents and fatality in the entire 14 years of its operations adding that the HSE policy of company is hinged on prevention of injury to employees, assets, and environment.