FG To Close Down Domestic Gas Retailers’ Shop Operating Without Licence

The Department of Petroleum (DPR), has warned Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) retailers operating without licenses and the required safety standard to quickly do so or have their plants shutdown.

The Bayelsa State Operation Controller, DPR, Mrs Ejiro Ufondu, gave the warning when she led a team of the DPR officials on an unscheduled visits to Gas refilling plants in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa state capital and its environs.

Mrs. Ufondu, who shut down one of the retail plants in Akenfai, Yenagoa local government area of the state for operating without license, said the visits to the retailers was to make sure they imbibe safe practices for handling Domestic gas usage and sells.

She said, “Part of our visit today is for the implementation of the federal government domestic gas policy. The federal government is encouraging gas penetration so that more citizens can use domestic gas to cook and less of kerosene.

“This is a deliberate policy of the Federal Government, so that we can keep our forests alive and keep the ecosystem safe.

“Some of the key things we are looking for is that all the cylinder that should be used had to be approved by the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), any cylinder that is not approved by the SON should not be used in this country.

“Anybody who is setting up a plant or operating a plant must have a valid license, this is the month of October, this is the renewal period, so we are encouraging all the LPG refilling plant operators to start the process of renewing their license if they have not started to do so.

“Any station that does not have a valid license will be sealed in the course of this campaign.

She said, henceforth, no resellers of domestic gas should resell from cylinders to cylinder as they are required to fill their cylinders only at standard refilling plants.

“This is a warning as we have said earlier from the stations we have visited, we are giving them time because we will write them official letters letting them know the outcomes of the audit and by the time we come again, if those things are still there then they will be shut down permanently.”

“They will have to close shop because If they don’t have a license, you can’t be sure what they have there, you can’t be sure where their gas is coming from, you can’t be sure of the standard of their cylinders, you can’t be sure of exactly what they are doing, so they need to be shut down, they will have to start from the beginning.”