The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), has commended the Cross River State Government for initiating palliative options that would help facilitate full compliance of the Federal Government policy to regulate the of ownership of LPG Cylinders from individuals to only marketers and certified resellers in the state.
This was made known at the DPR Office in Calabar, when the Special Adviser to the Governor on Gas Development paid a Courtesy visit on the Operations Controller in the state, Engr. Awolu Philip on Tuesday. The Controller, promised to support the laudable initiative of the state government which is aimed at ensuring that businesses operating the LPG Resell business in the state are not forced out of business because of lack of finance, when DPR commences the enforcement of ownership of LPG Cylinders by resellers of LPG only.
Speaking earlier, the Special Adviser on Gas Development to The Governor, Mr Maurice Ekong commended the Department on the recently held meeting at Abuja, with critical stakeholders in the LPG sector, where two months notice was given before the enforcement of compliance against illegal operators of LPG resell outlets in the Country. Mr. Ekong observed that if full compliance and regulation is carried out in the LPG resell sector, this would certainly reduce if not completely stop, the disturbing and growing incidences of LPG cylinder explosions in the country, which is estimated to be responsible for about 90% of reported cases of gas explosions. The Special Adviser remarked further that, this singular act on its own will increase the safety record and boost the confidence of end users for domestic use of LNG and by so doing, increase its acceptance by more people, which will ultimately shoot up the consumption volume of domestic use of LPG from the current abysmal national level of 6% to double digits.
Mr Ekong however cautioned that, if full compliance to the policy is effected by DPR, without palliative put in place to cushion the resulting financial burden on most of the resell outlets without the financial capacity to stock their outlets with the minimum numbers of 40 cylinders of varying sizes that is required by law, in the DPR Procedural and Control Manual, this could be very disastrous, because it may likely drive most resellers out of business, and potentially compromise the already low level of domestic consumption of LPG, due to the fact that, many end user customers may experience difficulty in assessing the few resellers who meet the standards, who may also want to capitalize on their sudden monopoly to increase prices of LPG.
In his submission The Special Adviser reminded the Operations Controller of DPR, Calabar, that it is part of the duties of a focused government, to be socially responsive to the needs of her citizens and thus provide palliatives to make life easy and more meaningful whenever the need arises. To this end, the Department of Gas Development, offered support/collaboration that should hopefully help facilitate a successful implementation of the LPG cylinder ownership policy. He revealed that Techno Oil – an indigenous LPG Cylinder manufacturing company in Nigeria, with an annual production capacity of 5 million cylinders has indicated their interest/willingness to provide all the LPG cylinders that is needed in Cross River State, under a structured payment plan system which will make it easy for resell outlets to buy and own their own cylinders and pay with ease.
He ended by noting that with the Digital Governor of Cross River State, His Excellency Sen. (Prof.) Ben Ayade, being an environmentalist of international repute, Cross River State is poised to be at the forefront of promoting the use of LPG for domestic uses and by so doing, reduce the need of wood for cooking and thus key into the Federal Government drive for the development of the LPG domestic utilization, through the introduction of special incentives under pilot schemes, that are targeted at the poorest in our rural communities who are still using firewood. Indeed, Cross River State is poised to become one of the few states, if not the 1st state in Nigeria to achieve the Federal Governments target of reducing national domestic energy consumption of PMS, DPK, AGO by achieving 40% fuel switch to LPG in 5 years, by getting 13.8 million households to use LPG.
Responding to the call, the DPR Operations Controller, in the State Engr. Awolu Philip said, their initial concerns which centered on not provoking a negative economic situation, which may arise after full enforcement of the policy has been squarely addressed with the proposed palliatives for retailers to help keep them in business. Engr. Awolu said DPR is ready to support the State to achieve this wonderful template towards full compliance. He further thanked the Special Adviser on Gas Development, for his well thought-out action plan, which he said was made possible due to his insider knowledge as an industry practitioner, noting that it could serve as a model for other States.
End.