The Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM) has urged importers of cooking gas cylinders to comply with the standards set by the regulatory agencies to enhance safety in the industry.
Its President, Mr Nosa Ogieva-Okunbor, gave the advice in an interview in Lagos last week while reacting to the recent destruction of over 5,000 substandard Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders by the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON).
Ogieva-Okunbor said SON and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) were the agencies saddled with the responsibility of ensuring safe importation and manufacturing of LPG, commonly referred to as cooking gas.
He said that only two indigenous companies were currently producing gas cylinders in the country and there were lots of areas concerning LPG that needed to be developed.
Ogieva-Okunbor said: “Techno Oil and General Disco are the only companies producing gas cylinders in Nigeria.
“In a country of over 200 million people, this speaks volume of the abysmal and low consumption of LPG in Nigeria.
“Definitely, businessmen would want to import cylinders to augment.
“My appeal as the national president of NALPGAM is that Nigerians that are involved in importation should ensure that they meet with the standard requirements of LPG cylinders.
“If you bring in a substandard cylinder, you do not know if it is going to be someone related to you that will be the victim of your action.
“So, my appeal is that the importers should not engage in such acts.”
According to him, NALPGAM, as an association, apart from distributing free cylinders, is also involved in sensitising Nigerians on the proper and safe usage of cooking gas.
NAN reports that SON had on Nov. 29 destroyed over 5,000 LPG cylinders worth N51.3 million at its warehouse in Lagos which were imported by different businessmen.
The destroyed cooking gas cylinders were in sizes of 50kg, 12.5kg, 6kg and 3kg and had branded names such as Anadolugaz, Royaltek, Setro, Repsol and Safic.
The agency said the cylinders were seized by SON during the first quarter of 2019 after some of them failed its mandatory test while others were not manufactured according to the expected specifications.
It added that some were fairly used cylinders imported from outside Nigeria without authorisation from SON which made them contraband goods.
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