Sixteen gas facilities and filling stations have been sealed by the Edo state office of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) over alleged breach of rules and regulations.
The facilities were closed in Oredo, Ikpoba Okha, Egor and Uhunmwonde local government areas of the state during a two-day monitoring and inspection exercise carried out by the agency’s officials
The agency also arrested five suspects and handed them over to law enforcement agencies for prosecution.
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Engineer. Ebi Ogionwo, the state comptroller of the agency said the clampdown was a renewed onslaught against the activities of illegal and unlicensed oil and gas operators in Edo.
He alleged that some operators set up oil and gas facilities in areas that are not suitable for the business and without necessary approvals from the agency.
He explained that the exercise was a continuous one and the purpose of the arrest made is to bring sanity to the operations of midstream and downstream petroleum business in the state.
He warned investors against taking laws into their hands and go about setting up such petroleum facilities in areas that are not approved by the agency.
He also hinted that the suspects arrested will be charged to court
“We are trying to enumerate the total numbers of illegal plants that we have and we are going to take necessary actions against them including partnering with other agencies of governments both state and federal governments to make sure that we shut them down in the state.
“The monitoring and inspection exercise was to entrench safety of lives, properties and environment as well as to check for compliance.It is one of our primary responsibilities to make sure that all the people who have established and operating oil and gas facilities in Edo state do so legally, according to the petroleum laws and for them to operate it in a manner that will entrench safety of lives and properties in the state.
“There are laws, guidelines and regulations that people must follow before they set up oil and gas facilities in Edo state. So the purpose of the operations is also to check the level of compliance by those who have set up these facilities in the state and also take necessary actions that is required of us to take on them”, he said.