THE Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) is to engage stakeholders in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) operations with a view to design new guidelines on LPG operations in the industry.
Zonal Controller, DPR, Lagos, Oluwole Akinyosoye, disclosed this in Lagos in a presentation on safety in LPG operations during NIPCO’s Safety Week celebrations to commemorate World Day for Safety & Health at Work.
The Controller who commended NIPCO management for the high level of safety consciousness and excellent house-keeping being exhibited by the company, said the feat has given credence to the receipt of best compliant HSE terminal NPA awards consecutively in the past six years.
“We are today talking to NIPCO, we are going to engage other players in the industry as well. We have started engaging NNPC 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 and that is why we are looking at the LPG guidelines once again,” he said.
Akinyosoye said that 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 will 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 and being fit for purpose.”
Earlier while declaring open the Safety Week events, Managing Director, NIPCO Plc, Sanjay Teotia, said that 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.