The Department of Petroleum Resources has sealed 30 filling stations and eight liquefied Petroleum Gas outlets for various offences in Akwa Ibom.
The state Operations Controller of DPR, Victor Ohwodiasa, said this when he spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria in Eket, headquarters of Eket Local Government Area of the state on Thursday.
Ohwodiasa said the filling stations and LPG outlets were sealed for offences ranging from under dispensing, operating without valid sales and storage license, poor housekeeping, poorly sited and illegally operating in the state.
“I can authoritatively tell you that we have sealed 30 filling stations and eight gas outlets for operating illegally in the state.
“We can not continue to allow illegality because we don’t need an accident to occur first, we just have to be proactive instead of being reactive.
“It is going to be a continuous fight because people are constraints because of the environmental condition, economic hardship, they want to cut corners and that is why we have regulators to check them,” Ohwodiasa said.
He said the filling stations sealed were located in Eket, Uyo and Onna LGAs of the state.
“We are drawing a plan to touch all the 31 LGAs of the state, cutting across not just filling stations but gas outlets so that they can have the feel of our presence in the state,” Ohwodiasa said.
He said the department would be proactive in order to ensure that gas retail outlets and gas plants were operating within safety procedures that govern the oil and gas industry.
(NAN)
