|
BNW |
|
B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
DPR shuts four filling stations for sharp practices
DEPARTMENT of Petroleum Resources (DPR) yesterday in Lagos sealed four filling stations for sharp practices involving under-dispensing and profiteering.
The clampdown affected the outlets belonging to Conoil Plc, African Petroleum (AP) Plc, Total Plc and Mobil Plc, all situated along Ikorodu Road.
They were all penalised for one form of malpractice or the other.
The body is the oil industry's regulatory arm of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) responsible for monitoring and regulating activities of companies in both the downstream and upstream sectors of the oil industry.
The Conoil filling stations, though selling at the correct price of N52, were sealed up following the discovery that all their pumps were under-calibrated.
The AP filling station, also selling at N52, was found guilty of the same offence while Mobil in Anthony Village along Ikorodu Road was found to be dispensing correctly at an exorbitant price of N53.
As such, the department has described the scenario as profiteering and consequently warned marketers to readjust their selling pumps and also revert to N52 per litre as stipulated for coastal areas such as Lagos.
Mrs. Balema Oshibodu, Assistant Director, Corporate Affairs of DPR, who led the monitoring team to these outlets, described short-changing the public as unwarranted, especially with the recent unfavourable changes in prices of petrol products.
Oshibodu stressed the need for operators to play by the rules, with the caveat that the department was out to whip them into line.
She disclosed that the exercise was a continuous one and urged operators to abide by the rules of the market by adjusting their selling pumps accurately and sell at the official price of N52 per litre.
The station manager of one of the sealed Conoil stations feigned ignorance on the dispensing condition of the pumps and explained that the maintenance personnel would be notified to re-adjust them properly.
Describing the shutdown of the filling stations as necessary, Mr. Ademola Shabi, Principal Technical Officer, DPR, emphasised that the profiteering tendency of the marketers should be put under check, particularly with the current full deregulation regime of the downstream sector.
|
|
||||||||||||
