DPR seals gas plants, petrol stations in Ebonyi

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Enugu Field Office, has sealed six Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) plants and three petrol stations in Ebonyi in the last seven days.

Mr Okechukwu Okoro, the Controller of the field office, which comprises Enugu and Ebonyi states, disclosed this on Wednesday in Enugu in an interview with our reporter.

Okoro said the facilities were sealed due to infringement, ranging from operating without licence and under dispensing.

The controller said that during routine monitoring, it was discovered that six out of eight LPG plants in Uburu, Okposi and Afikpo were operating illegally.

He said that LPG plants operating without licence may not have met requisite safety standards.

“Vapourised gas is highly inflammable and very dangerous. That is why we insist that the relevant safety standards must be met before such stations become operational,” he said.

Okoro said that the plants would remain shut until the owners regularised their operational licences.

On the petrol stations, the controller said that three of the 13 inspected were found to be under dispensing products to customers.

He described the action of the marketers as fraudulent and vowed that the DPR would not tolerate that.

Okoro said that the operators would pay fines and adjust their pumps to normal before the DPR unseal the stations.

He described the general market environment as calm, adding that the field office would work to sustain that.

“People were happy seeing that the DPR could come to Ebonyi to enforce operational regulations.

“Any marketer caught for any form of infringement will be made to face the wrath of the law.