The CEO of the National Petroleum Authority [NPA] says the Authority will soon review the NPA Act and regulations as a way to make it more deterrent as compared to the existing one.
Hassan Tampuli said upon his assumption of office as the boss of NPA, he realized the sanctions to be meted out to operators who fall short of the safety regulations are not deterrent enough.
"Some of the sanctions require a station operator to pay 500 Ghana Cedis if he or she did not adhere to the safety measures put in place to safeguard the lives of people".
About eight gas explosions in the country over the years have claimed lives and injured many others, the most recent one is the Atomic junction gas explosion at MANSCO filling station which prompted Cabinet to come out with nine-safety measures that will curb the recurrence of gas explosions in the country. Key among the measures is the implementation of the Cylinder Re-circulation Model of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) distribution.
Speaking of the efforts being put in place by his outfit to help do away with gas explosion due to noncompliance with safety regulations, Hassan Tumpuli said the amendment of the NPA ACT and Regulations will make it more punitive for station operators not to adhere to the required legislation governing their operations.
Hassan Tampuli said the policy laid out by Cabinet was not implemented because of just the Atomic gas explosion but rather the policy has been on the table with all stakeholders making inputs to make it more comprehensive and applicable.
The NPA has also closed down 36 filling stations across the country for noncompliance with safety regulations after the Atomic junction gas explosion
Mr Tampuli also said most of their operations in the past in terms of visiting filling stations and closing them down was not made public because they did not want to cause fear and panic and also damage the brand of the stations for some temporary nonadherence that could be rectified.
Read Nana Addo orders for the implementation of cylinder circulation program
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