Gov’t to Carry Out Safety Audit of Storage Facilities

Dr Amin Adam, a Deputy Minister of Energy has announced that government with support from Kosmos Energy will soon carry out safety Audits at all the installations and storage facilities to ensure perpetual safety.

Some of the areas, he said would include; Tema Oil Refinery, Atuabo Gas Plant, and all other relevant areas as part of the Petroleum infrastructure.

Dr Amin was speaking at the launch of the second Association of Oil Marketing Companies safety week celebration on the theme: Petroleum Safety, Prepare and prevent, in Accra.

The week-long celebrations of the Association, which begun on Monday would include; media interactions, training programmes for Trainers to train LPG Attendants, join the Muslims in a special prayer at the Abossey-Okai Central Mosque on Friday and climax it with a non-denominational church service at the Ridge church on Sunday.

He said those measures had become necessary on account of the rampant fire outbreaks at fuel filling stations in the country, indicating that the safety audit system would include; transportation, work place safety and along the roads.

Dr Amin commended the Association of Oil Marketing Companies for their initiatives in educating the public on safety measures adding that until operational standards were put in place for compliance, the association would need to continue educating the public on safety measures.

The Deputy Minister appealed to the National Petroleum Authority to take special interest in the transportation of the petroleum products as the accidents were not occurring at only discharging and sales points.

Mr Hassan Taumpuli, Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority said Ghana was sitting on a time-bomb as inspections at various Senior High Schools indicated that installations of their gas systems were poorly done.

He said in certain schools, the operators had little knowledge about the operations, which was deadly and needed urgent educational programmes.

Mr Tampuli said the NPA was carrying out a comprehensive risks assessment and as soon as that was completed, it would be categorised into high and low risk stations.

The high-risk filling stations, he said would be converted to Gas distribution centres, while the low risk areas would play the dual role of distributing the cylinders and also used as Auto Gas filling stations for vehicles that use gas as fuel.

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