The National Assembly Committee on relocation of tank farms from residential areas has reiterated its commitment to ensuring the safety of Nigerians in spite of any accruing economic benefits.
Mr Sergius Age, Chairman of the committee, made this known during a tour of some tank farms on Monday in Port Harcourt.
Age said that the tour was part of an oversight function of the House in line with operational mandate of the Department of Petroleum Resource (DPR).
He said that the primary task of committee was to ensure that already existing tank farms in residential areas adopt all safety measures to be allowed to continue operations.
“We have placed so much emphasis on safety because as we can see, if there’s a fire incident in a tank farm in a residential area communities around such facility would be grossly affected.
“So far so good, the physical structure and the fire fighting equipment here in some of these farms are excellent.
“Basically, what we are trying to do is to ensure that appropriate measures are in place in those farms that are already in full operations in residential areas.“
On corporate social responsibilities by operating tank farms, the lawmaker said that a stakeholders meeting has been scheduled to further deepen the interest of host communities.
“We have also scheduled a stakeholders meeting on Thursday, and we hope all stakeholdees would bring to us issues bordering on corporate social responsibilities of these operating tank farms,” he added.
Reacting, Mr Bassey Nkanga, Zonal Operations Controller of DPR Rivers State, said that effort is on top gear to sanction defaulting tank farms operators in the state.
According to him, a good number of tank farms operating within residential areas in the state have so far recorded a commendable safety compliance level.
He added that those that are yet to key into the safety vision of DPR were at risk of sanctions.
“We just conducted a technical audit and from the assessment, some have met the technical compliance standard.
“For those of them whose compliance does not meet required standard, we have given them specific period to ratify all pending issues,” Nkanga said.
