The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in Bayelsa has sealed two petrol stations and a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) filling station in Yenagoa for various offences, including expired licence and the lack of basic operational equipment.
The organisation carried out the action on Tuesday, when a team of its officials, led by the Chief Technical Officer in the state field office, Mr Obi Ifi, paid unscheduled visit to many of the retail petrol outlets.
The affected filling stations were Carol Oil and Gas, South South Oil and Gas and Biobele Gas station, all in Yenagoa, the state capital.
Ifi said that the stations were sealed for lack of equipment and failure to renew their operational licences.
He urged other stations to desist from such acts or be prepared to face sanctions.
He said: “We are out for surveillance, we have gone through several stations, some have asked what the reason for the sealing of this station is.
“We have sealed Biobele outlet because they are operating their album without licence, which is against the law.
“Secondly, Carol Oil was sealed for operating without extinguishers.
“This is not accepted to government. It is highly wrong and the safety of the environment is also paramount to government, so the surveillance is still ongoing.
“We are still checking stations that do not have licence or those with expired licence.
“We are still going to seal them in order to ensure that they complied with the law.
“They won’t operate without license,” Ifi said, adding that the organisation was also checking station’s dispensing pumps.
He said that pumps that were found to have been tampered with would be sealed and sanctioned according to the law.
He said: “For the metres, they are complying. The pumps are operating within the tolerable limit. “However, the sand bucket in some stations are wet so we are still going to advise them to dry the sand as part of the safety measures.
He said that pumps that failed the test would be sealed, adding that stations should keep their meters at 10.003.
