Operators have expressed concern about the proliferation of low-quality cylinders and liquefied petroleum gas, also known as cooking gas and having a high propane content, in circulation. They are working under the auspices of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Retailers Branch of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers.
According to a statement released on Monday, Chika Umudu, the immediate past chairman of the LPGAR NUPENG Branch, offered the warning while addressing at the 3rd Quadrennial Delegates Conference with the topic “Prioritising Safety In LPG Retailing.”
However, he urged the Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority and the Standards Organization of Nigeria to stop the market’s growing use of high propane LPG, highlighting how harmful it was for both users and operators.
He was cited as stating, “Let’s suppose the substandard cylinders being imported mostly from China is a temporary fix to fill the existing vacuum. What is the long-term plan to ensure that only standard cylinders are imported and these substandard cylinders are withdrawn in the not too distant future?
“Once again, why can’t we have these cylinders and accessories manufactured locally, as they were in the 1980s and 1990s?” Why can’t these multinational corporations, who are vying for shop space with street vendors, be informed that it is their responsibility to create LPG cylinders and other essential materials?
The ‘China cylinders’ hardly tolerate exposure to Nigerian weather for a year, it is crucial to mention. It is a ticking time bomb because so many low-income people, in especially, are unaware of the monsters they are surrounded by.
When Techno Oil began making cylinders in Nigeria, he claimed, it gave operators more hope, but “shortly it vanished from circulation. Perhaps it has experienced what happened to its predecessors in the 1990s.
