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Oil Marketing Companies Mark Safety Week

By Ajarfor Emmanuel Abugri
Business & Finance Oil Marketing Companies Mark Safety Week
MAY 24, 2018 LISTEN

The Association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMCs) has this year celebrated the second edition of their safety week to educate members and the general public on safe use of petroleum products.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Deputy Minister for Energy in-charge of Petroleum, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam commended the leadership of AOMCs for their effort in improving on the safety of their operations.

The minister, according to the National Petroleum Authority (NPA)said the sector has recorded fewer accidents since last year mainly due to the enforcement of the safety standards by all the stakeholders.

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According to him, the leadership of AOMCs was asked to develop more stringent industry standards last year which will enable them to call its members to order for flouting regulations regarding the safety standards.

“Last year, I asked the AOMCs to develop industry standards. Standards more stringent than standards of our regulator which is what happens in developed society. If your standards are higher than the regulator there is no way any of you will have problems with the regulator. And therefore through your peer review mechanism, you will be able to call to order your members who flout regulatory standards or safety standards. I want to reiterate that this is so important for you to do so that you can show leadership for government to even follow. And where we have best practices industry has always shown the way for the government to follow,” he stated.

Dr. Amin noted that government with support from Kosmos Energy will soon embark on safety audit of large-scale petroleum infrastructure beginning with the LPG value chain such as the facilities at Atuabo Gas processing plant, Quantum LPG Terminal, Tema Oil Refinery LPG Distribution Terminals and others.

“We believe that we cannot address safety at the distribution point when we cannot address safety at the source point and therefore, to complement what NPA is doing government has decided to begin this safety audit to comprehensively deal with safety in the petroleum industry,” he posited.

On personal safety, the sector minister called on NPA to collaborate with agencies at the Ministry of Transport and Employment and Labour Relations Ministry to develop safety protocols regarding the safe use of petroleum products by consumers.

’Another issue of importance is the out of station safety which is safety in the use of petroleum products in transportation vehicles and industrial machines. If we don’t have explosions we have explosions on vehicles as a result of the unsafe use of petroleum products. In this endeavor, I will like to call on NPA to collaborate with agencies of the Ministry of Transport and Employment Ministry to develop safety protocols if they don’t have any so that we can begin to enforce them. NPA must show interest in what the ministry of transport is doing so that we can collaborate our efforts to develop common standards that will satisfy all the sector agencies,” he emphasized.

Dr. Amin added that many consumers around the world are switching fossil fuel for other sources of energy mainly because of safety. We have made effort through the LPG Promotion Policy (LPP) to switch consumers from the use of charcoal or electricity in favour of LPG because the LPG stations are becoming unsafe and unstable.

He noted that the LPG penetration which stands at 23percent is expected to increase to 50percent by 2030 through the government’s LPP.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NPA, Hassan Tampuli said there are 109 Oil Marketing Companies (OMSs), 42 Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) marketing companies registered with over 3,300 retail outlets nationwide and about 60 being LPG refill outlets.

He indicated that all these petroleum installations pose a considerable safety risk to the workers, consumers and the environment if not properly managed.

According to him, the Authority is committed to developing and improving safety standards and measures to conform to international best practices and ensure all operators strictly adhere.

MrTampuli said the Authority as part of its efforts launched the National Safety Campaign to raise awareness on adherence to safety protocols in the petroleum downstream sector under the theme “People Safety First.”

According to him, the aim was to educate industry stakeholders and the general public on the safe handling of petroleum products in their quest to reduce petroleum-related accidents to the barest minimum.

He added that the Authority has undertaken the implementation of the Cylinder Re-circulation Model (CRM) which proves to be the safer LPG retailing method compared to the existing model.

“In this regard, a comprehensive risk assessment is being undertaken to categorize all existing LPG refilling plants into high or low risk. Currently, the exercise has been completed in 7 regions and the reports are being compiled. High-risk stations will be converted into cylinder exchange points while low-risk stations will be upgraded to sell autogas,” Hassan Tampuli intimated.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMCs), Kwaku Agyemang –Duah noted that bemoan the activities of fuel smuggling indicating that such activities are collapsing their businesses.

He said the situation if not curtailed could lead to possible job losses and investments thereby diminishing business confidence in the sector.

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