DPR Warns Illegal Cooking Gas, Lubricant Operators

• DPR Warns Illegal Cooking Gas, Lubricant Operators

The Department of Petroleum Resources has said it will clamp down on more illegal operators of cooking gas and lubricant outlets across the country in a bid to ensure safety in the downstream sector.

The Director, DPR, Mr. Mordecai Ladan, on Thursday decried the increasing number of illegal lubricant sales outlets springing up in different parts of the country.

“These illegal operations also have a direct bearing on product safety and quality. The DPR is diligently working with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and law enforcement officials to curb this growing menace,” he said in Lagos at the 2017 Annual General Meeting of the agency’s Lagos zonal office.

Ladan stated that the need to deeply entrench safety as a key driver in the operating environment was further underpinned by the upsurge in petroleum products’ handling facilities such as Compressed Natural Gas downloading stations and Liquefied Petroleum Gas refilling plants in retail outlets.

The Controller, Lagos Zonal Operations, DPR, Mr. Wole Akinyosoye, said the agency had recorded significant success on products integrity, especially for white products.

He stated, “Now, cases of product adulteration are rare and far between. We especially commend the cooperation of depot operators with the DPR in ensuring strict compliance with products’ specifications and for getting the right specifications of products into our filling stations.

“However, we still encounter challenges on maintaining the standards for lubricants. Here, the market is fraught with obstacles, deliberately created by some dishonest traders, who vend base oil as lubricants in constant bid to swindle unsuspecting public. This unscrupulous practice is also wrecking machines and polluting our environment.”