DPR Audits, Shutdown Errant Filling Stations

The Department of Petroleum Resources on Tuesday announced that it had carried out an audit of filling stations in a bid to forestall sharp practices perpetuated by oil marketers during the ember months.

DPR also declared that it had shut down the operations of errant marketers operating in the downstream arm of the oil sector.

The Zonal Operations Controller, DPR Abuja, Buba Abubakar, said the audit, which was done in Abuja and its environs, led to the sealing of 10 filling stations, adding that the agency had intensified surveillance on retail outlets that dispense petrol.

Abubakar, who spoke after the department inspected some filling stations, said, “We are going into the ember months and that is why we have audited the retail stations to make sure that they are up and doing.

“And out of the over 320 stations that we have in Abuja, we discovered that 10 were not performing up to the required standard.

“We sealed all the 10 of them and when we went there today we discovered that five have upgraded to the standard set by DPR and they were unsealed.”

He added, “So right now I want to tell the marketers that we are going to sustain our surveillance and they should be very careful in what they are doing. We are going to look at the issues of product diversion, hoarding and under-dispensing.

“We’ve come to realise that marketers are cheating the public by under-dispensing products. So we are going to take a critical look at these three highlighted items and, of course, we will sustain surveillance.”