DPR Ibadan sanctions 158 filling stations in 2018 – Official

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Ibadan Field Office, says it sanctioned 158 filling stations and issued warnings to 277 in 2018.

Oluyemi Olaonipekun, DPR Operations Controller, disclosed this in Ibadan on Sunday at the end of the year party organised for staff by the agency.

Mr Olaonipekun said the agency had worked assiduously to ensure that what happened at the end of the year 2017 did not happen again.

“The summary of our activities in 2018 include 3,822 stop checks, product availability at outlets; which was at 46 per cent in the first quarter of the year and rose to 87 per cent as at present.

“We have sanctioned 158 stations for various offences such as under dispensing of products at forecourt, non-compliance to standard operating procedures among others, we also have issued 277 stations warnings.

“Also, we have engaged stakeholders through various avenues during the year such as annual marketers meeting, presentations at seminars organised by the association of the operators and other inter-governmental agencies meetings,” he said.

The operations controller also disclosed that the year under review witnessed the migration of application processing from manual to electronic which had yielded improved efficiency and service delivery.

Mr Olaonipekun said the federal government’s directives to the agency had been carried out to the latter, adding there are no indices that there would be a hike in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in January 2019.

“We have ensured that the products given to Oyo and Osun States get to the forecourt because of our proactive activities in the past months.

“It is difficult for any marketer to divert products; that is why we are saying we have tried our best and we can beat our chests on that. (NAN)