Let’s uphold safety of LPG in new policy – Minister
Dr Archibald Y. Letsa, Volta Regional Minister, has called on the public uphold the safety rules in dealing with gas and petroleum products.
He said petroleum products were safe only when used in the right way under supervision.
Dr Letsa said this at the Volta Regional Segment of the New Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Cylinder Recirculation Model (CRM) stakeholder consultation and engagement in Ho.
He said the consultation is aimed at dialoguing with stakeholders on CRM, assessing the expectations of consumers, identifying investment and financing opportunities in the value-chain and implementation roadmap.
Dr Letsa said the CRM policy would make safety cardinal in handling gas and petroleum products to eliminate or reduce the incidence of fires.
He commended the NPA for creating the platform for the exchanges and that steps have been taken to consolidate activities in the LPG value-chain with the view to reduce health, safety, security and save the environment.
Mr Kodwo Abbiw Jackson, Director, Human Resource and Administration, NPA, said recent incidences of fire disaster in the Ghana Petroleum Downstream Industry, which has claimed many lives gave birth to the new policy to sanitise the sector.
He said the policy sought to enhance the capacity of existing regulatory institutions, develop a market-driven structure to ensure safety, increase access and adoption of LPG in its value-chain of production, marketing and consumption.
Mr Jackson said a cardinal goal of the policy was to ensure that at least 50 per cent of the citizenry had access to LPG for increased domestic, commercial and industrial usage by 2030, from the current 25 per cent.
Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Dua, Chief Executive Officer of Oil Marketing Companies, said the CRM would create greater marketing space and engender competition among players, targeted at making the consumer a better person.
He said dissenting voice is good as ascribed by law and reminded them that “Dialogue is good, even if you fight soliciting for solutions for an issue, you end up on dialogue.”
Dr Agyeman-Dua appealed to government to reduce taxes of gas.
Mr George Mireku-Duker, Vice Chairman, Parliamentary Committee on Mines and Energy, said both sides of Parliament have agreed for the shift in the LPG policy towards securing lives and property stating that the old system was an affront to safety.
He appealed to Ghanaians to embrace change in policy saying “change is difficult but an easier route to go,” and that the new policy was being implemented across Africa and Ghana could not be an exception.
Source: GNA