As part of its commitment to shutting down such enterprises as of June 1, 2023, the Federal Government said on Monday that no unlicensed petroleum product dealer will be permitted to load products after that date.
It emphasized that “no licence, no loading of any petroleum product” and warned that as of June 1, 2023, anyone wishing to transact in petroleum products must get a license.
At a stakeholders’ meeting on gas usage in Nigeria, the government issued the warning in Abuja via the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
The engagement’s goals were to educate operators about the urgency of obtaining the necessary petroleum storage license and to encourage the switch from white products to gas.
“No loading, no license. We still have around nine days to act morally and abide by the rules. According to the Bible, obedience is preferable to offering a sacrifice. As a regulator, we would prefer that people abide by the rules so as not to harm your companies.
We can promise you that, beginning of June 1st, there will be no license and no loading if there is no compliance, according to the authority. We would shut down any depot, any permitted operator that provides petroleum products to an unlicensed facility, said Ogbugo Ukoha, executive director of the NMDPRA’s distribution systems, storage, and retailing infrastructure.
“I want to make a special appeal that anyone who wants to handle petroleum products in excess of 500-liter storage is required to obtain a licence,” he continued. We go through everything during our licensing process, including your equipment, distance, risks, and procedures.
Ukoha urged the operators to position their energy demands to accept gas derivatives in order to take advantage of the changing prospects in the gas value chain.
He listed the derivatives, which also included compressed natural gas, autogas, propane, and butane, and said that investing in them would help protect against potential future global uncertainties caused by the supply of gasoline and diesel.
Okoha claimed that the authority’s twelve gazetted regulations, which when broken posed higher dangers, had specified the licensing framework, practices, and standards for handling petroleum products.
The Federal Government has implemented a number of measures and policy frameworks, including the National Gas Expansion Programme and the Decade of Gas Programme, to expand the usage of gas in Nigeria, according to the authority’s Chief Executive Officer, Farouk Ahmed.
The Executive Director, Health, Safety, Environment and Community, NMDPRA, Mustapha Lamorde, spoke on behalf of Faouk. “It is our hope that this engagement will create the necessary awareness and make the compelling case for industry operators to foster a compliance culture, which alone guarantees safer and sustainable facilities,” he said.
He said that the Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund, which is a part of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, would catalyze investments in gas. He also said that while efforts to expand the use of gas were already showing results, more collaboration was still required to increase domestic gas usage.
