The Jos Field Office of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Federal Fire Service have cautioned stakeholders in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as well as consumers of domestic gas to exercise optimum safety measures in handling the product, especially during this yuletide and harmattan season.
DPR has also advised citizens against panic buying of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) ahead of yuletide, assuring that the fuel in stock was more than enough to take the people beyond the season.
Speaking at its first town hall sensitisation meeting with plant operators of LPG and relevant stakeholders in Jos, DPR Field Operations Controller, Mr. Jerome Agada, observed that the world is transiting from fossil fuel to alternative cleaner sources of energy hence the need to be safety conscious in handling LPG.
He added that “government cannot encourage the establishment of LPG and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) plants in isolation or neglect of imperatives of safety in operation in order to avert accidents that could cause loss of lives and property.”
Agada said the DPR was mandated to ensure sustainable development of the nation’s oil and gas resources across value chain for stakeholders through effective monitoring and regulatory guidance, while entrenching world class professionalism, accountability, transparency and safety in operations. Noting that the meeting was called to sensitise stakeholders in the industry to operate within guidelines and standards that had guided the establishment of the plants, the controller added that it was also to sensitise the public on safe handling and use of cooking gas as well as storage cylinders.
He said: “As we share ideas, it is our utmost desire that the knowledge gained would be brought to bear on our collective duties to improve our investment prospects and safety in operations.”
In their presentations, representatives of the Federal Fire Service, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), charged stakeholders on various safety measures to avoid fire disaster in the course of handling gas.
The DPR also used the avenue to allay the fears of citizens of possible scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) ahead of yuletide, assuring that the fuel in stock at the Jos depot was more than enough to take the people beyond the season.
“Approximately, 26 million litres of PMS is currently in stock in the depot, and there has been regular supply of the product to the state; the average daily supply of the product to Plateau State is about 19 trucks. This is aside the 26 million litres in the depot. So, there can’t be scarcity during the yuletide,” he assured.
News Credit : https://www.thisdaylive.com/
