DPR Wants Motorists to Provide Useful Information on Erring Petrol Marketers

Ejiofor Alike

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) wednesday charged motorists to provide useful information to the regulatory body on oil marketers that were involved in sharp practices in the area.

Speaking during the launching of a book titled “Protection of Property Rights in Discovered Petroleum Reservoir” written by Dr. Joseph Olorunse in Lagos, the Head of Public Affairs Unit of DPR, Mrs. Dorothy Bassey, said information was important, so that official of the agency could work on it.

Bassey argued that the partial deregulation of the downstream sector did not allow for sharp practices.
She said there were so many filling stations in the country and that the regulatory agency could not monitor all of them at the same time.

Bassey promised that the agency would proceed to work after getting useful information that a filling station was under-dispensing to motorist.

“Most of the information from Nigerians are not useful; you can’t call DPR and tell us that a certain filling station is under-dispersing without tell us the location. If the quality of petroleum that you are buying is not good, let us know, we will investigate the station but it is unfortunate that most of these information do not get to us. In order to simplify this, we have created three different centres to listen to complain from motorists to pass information to us,” she said.

Bassey commended the writer, who is a legal adviser to DPR, adding that the book had identified the problem in oil and gas sector and proffered solutions to it.

Director at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Abuja and book reviewer, Prof. Yinka Omorogbe, said the book made an attempt to find solutions to legal issues in oil and gas sector.

“The book fills the needed gap and is a very important contribution to the growth of the petroleum industry in Nigeria.The author critically studied and analysed the legal regime relating to rule of capture and property rise in Nigeria, Canada and Australia,” she said.

A Professor of Energy Planning and Management and Chairman of the Occasion, Prof. Anthony Adegbulugbe recommended the book for students in the university and operators in oil and gas sector.
In his speech, the author of the book said he wrote the book as a result of practical problems that arose during his work in DPR.

Director, Upstream Operation of DPR, Mr Emmanuel Bekee, commended the author for writing the book.
Bekee said that the book was essential in the growth of petroleum and very useful to all and sundry
The book which is titled ‘Protection of property Rights in Discovered Petroleum Reservoirs’, addresses comprehensively the persistence of the rule of capture in light of new technologies such as horizontal or directional well drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

The book, which is the first of its kind, sets forth the necessary theoretical framework to determine whether an investor or licensee has property rights to a discovered petroleum reservoir and is thus entitled to protection under investment treaties and international human rights instruments.

Although the issues covered are global, the book focuses on oil and gas law and jurisprudence in six key jurisdictions: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Nigeria, and the Netherlands.