The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) says it has ramped up efforts in ensuring safety, particularly in the downstream petroleum industry following the massive gas explosion at Atomic in 2017.

The October 7 accident resulted in the death of at least 7 persons with over 130 others sustaining varying degrees of injuries.

Speaking at this year’s Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) West Africa Conference, the CEO of NPA Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid said his outfit has improved training for its monitoring and inspection Directorates across the country.

He indicated that the inspection and monitoring teams are constantly at various filling stations across the country ensuring that safety measures are being observed.

He further added that NPA was concerned about ensuring safety in the downstream petroleum sector which has 4,450 registered tankers crisscrossing the length and breadth of the country as well as 4,837 petroleum and LPG outlets and allied facilities for the distribution of petroleum products.

Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid stressed that NPA is committed to reducing accidents in the petroleum sector to zero levels.

“The last time we had a major incident in this country involving an LPG filling station was the one at Atomic. Since then, we have tried to keep accidents in the industry at basically zero levels and that is because we have ramped up the training of our inspections, monitoring, and health and safety directorates which ensures that at every point in time,” he explained.

The focus of this year’s IOSH’s West Africa Conference was on taking the adoption of a safe and healthy working environment as a fundamental principle and right at work and turning it into a practical reality.

It was on the theme “Occupational Safety and Health As A Fundamental Labour Right.”