DPR seals 11 filling stations in FCT, 10 in Bauchi over malpractice
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has sealed11 filling stations in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for under-dispensing and over pricing of petrol.
The Zonal Operations Controller, DPR, Abuja, Mr Abubakar Buba, disclosed this at the monitoring exercise in Abuja on Wednesday.
Buba said that the DPR had enhanced its surveillance and monitoring of all filling stations to sustain compliance.
“This outing today is just a normal outing but this time around, we want to intensify the surveillance to make sure that filling station operators comply with the rules and regulations of their operations.
“We sanctioned about eight stations on Tuesday and today, three stations which you have also seen because of over pricing and under-dispensing of products,’’ he said .
He said that it was commendable that most of the stations visited were not hoarding products.
“So far so good, there are no queues, we did not find any station hoarding but we discovered few infractions which we have noted down and they are going to pay the appropriate fine.
“The infractions are over pricing to under-dispensing,’’ Buba said.
He called on motorists to avoid any form of panic buying as there was sufficiency of product in the country and government had no plan to increase the pump price.
Buba urged marketers to observe good operational practices that would prevent unintended water ingress into the underground storage tanks.
He added that filling stations should make sure that manholes were properly covered after every stocktaking to avoid water ingress.
“ With the raining season fast approaching, station owners should always check for presence of water using pastes during discharge and before commencement of sales.
“Filling stations owners should ensure use of tamper-proof manholes and other seal devices on petroleum products tankers to prevent sharp practices by tanker drivers who deliberately introduce water into products for greedy gains,’’ he advised.
Buba said that some gas plants were sealed for operating without obtaining license from the DPR.
“We are coming after filling stations that have established gas plants without licensing.
“We already have a team going round to check all the stations to check the add-ons and to make sure that all the add-ons are properly documented, make sure they have license and all the necessary approvals .
He assured that the DPR would sustain the monitoring and would come after any station that would be found wanting.
Our Correspondent reports that the team visited about six filling stations along the Kubwa- Kaduna express way.
Some of the stations visited include MRS Katampe, Conoil by Dawaki, Eterna, Oando, IBWAS, and A.Y. M Ashafa all on the same axis.
MRS was sealed for hoarding of products, at OANDO, the gas plant was sealed for operating without license, while IBWAS petrol station was sealed for selling petrol at N175 per liter to motorists.
Reacting, MRS Manager, Njor Ocholi, said that the station was not selling their products because it is undergoing maintenance .
“We are not hoarding products, for about four months now, we have not been operating because we did not renew our license.
“We just started operations last week and noticed that we have a faulty tank that is why we are undergoing this maintenance. We will contact the DPR immediately we finish work,’’ Ocholi said.
Meanwhile, the Bauchi office of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) said it sealed off no fewer than ten filling stations in the last one week for breaching extant rules and regulations of the department.
Malam Abdullahi Iliyasu, the Operations Controller of the department, made this known on Wednesday in Bauchi during a routine patrol of filling stations in the state.
He explained that five of the affected stations were sealed off for selling petrol above the official pump price pegged at N162 per litre and under dispensing of the product.
He added that the remaining five stations were affected for breach of safety measures which included lack of functional fire extinguishers and sand buckets.
He stressed that the department would not condone any breach of safety rules by operators of filling stations.
Iliyasu reiterated the commitment and determination of the department in ensuring availability of the product across the 20 existing Local Government Areas, and that it achieved 95 per cent compliance in terms of price and product availability.
“Only few stations were found to have inflated the price per litre to N170 and we would sanction them appropriately.
“Each of the affected dispensing pumps would be made to pay N100, 000 as statutory fine, and the higher the offence committed the higher the penalty,” Iliyasu said.
There are no fewer than 500 existing filling stations in Bauchi State, which were duly supervised by the DPR to ensure compliance and enforcement of operational standards.
