Curbing Circulation of Substandard LPG Cylinders

With the proliferation of fake and expired cooking gas cylinders in the country, the federal government should incentivise local manufacturers to stop the incessant cylinder explosions that have claimed lives and hampered efforts to encourage the use of gas as domestic fuel, writes Ejiofor Alike

Age and poor handling have resulted to the wear and tear of most cooking gas cylinders circulating in the country. Most cylinder-related accidents witnessed in recent years were caused by expired cylinders that exploded and caught fire during use.
For instance, early this year, an explosion caused by leaking gas cylinder killed four persons and left several others with severe burns in Badagry area of Lagos State.

The explosion, which occurred at an artisan’s shop in Ajara area of Badagry, also destroyed six buildings located near the workshop and six gas cylinders.
In Nnewi, Anambra State, scores also died a few years ago on the eve of Christmas when a gas cylinder exploded inside the gas plant.
It was gathered that most of the victims, who had gone to the gas plant to refill their cylinders ahead of Christmas were burnt beyond recognition, while some others in the neighborhood were also caught in the inferno.

The standard practice is that regulators, particularly, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) should carry out tests and analysis of the integrity of cylinders every five years to ensure that the cylinders are still strong to withstand the high pressure of gas.
But even if gas users are ready to submit their cylinders for such analysis, it is evident that SON lacks the technical and manpower capacity to check all the cylinders used by businesses and households in Nigeria.

Also, gas plant owners are required to check the integrity of the cylinders before re-filling the cylinders for their customers.
The plant owners are also required to reject cylinders with questionable integrity to avoid incidents that can claim lives and even destroy their own plants.

However, gas plant owners are reluctant to reject gas cylinders to avoid losing their market share because if a plant owner rejects a cylinder, the customer can refill in another gas plant or even patronise the numerous roadside retail outlets that are notorious for poor handling of gas.

With the efforts of the government and other stakeholders to deepen the use of gas as domestic fuel, more Nigerians have adopted the use of LPG in recent years and this has led to proliferation gas plants and roadside retail outlets.

Nigeria currently consumes about 400,000 metric tonnes of LPG yearly, compared to about 70,000MT in 2007, and this has also encouraged influx of cylinders.
Also, with the porous nature of the Nigerian borders, unscrupulous importers have continued to import expired and substandard gas cylinders.
Some of these imported cylinders are used cylinders that are corroded without any indication of expiry dates.

Recently, the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) released an impounded 40-feet container of substandard cylinders to SON for further necessary action in a brief ceremony at the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone A office of the NCS in Ikeja. Speaking during the handing over ceremony, the Comptroller FOU Zone A, Mr. Uba Mohammed noted that it was not the first time NCS was releasing such suspicious containers to SON for further investigations.
This, according to him, was in line with the federal government’s policy of inter-agency collaboration in the ease of doing business and protecting the interest of Nigerian consumers.

He said the suspicious container violated customs procedure through false declaration and trying to shortchange the federal government, which had prompted SON to indicate interest in the contents of the container.

In his remark, while receiving the container on behalf of the Director General of SON, the Chief State Prosecutor, Mr. Babatunde Alajogun thanked the NCS for its collaborative effort in releasing the suspicious container of LPG cylinders to SON.
Alagogun said SON’s interest was informed by the goods classified as life danger products.
The 40 feet container, according to the Chief Prosecutor, would be subjected to tests and analysis before a conclusion would be arrived at as to the quality of the contents and the next line of action.

Addressing journalists, the Director in charge of Inspectorate and Compliance, Mr. Bede Obayi named the alleged importer of the seized container as CramoHill Nigeria Limited.
According to him, the initial surveillance and investigation had revealed that the address provided on the import documents were fictitious and non- existent.

Obayi admonished importers to adhere strictly to laid down procedures for the importation of LPG cylinders, adding that “substandard LPG cylinders are time bombs that can kill innocent Nigerians if not stopped from coming into the country and assured that SON will stop at nothing to put an end to the importation of substandard LPG cylinders and other life endangering products”.

He also cautioned members of the public not to patronise “fairly used” LPG cylinders, saying they are risky and could cause untold harm and possible death as they are mostly expired and not fit for re-use.
Obayi, also charged consumers to look closely at the valve and collar around the head of the cylinder for carriage protection of the valve from breakage if the cylinder accidentally falls.

Other attributes Obayi advised Nigerians to watch out for include, the date of manufacture, capacity of the cylinder and most importantly the SON logo and unique serial/identification number displayed on the cylinder to ensure traceability in the case of any eventuality.

Indeed, the incessant accidents resulting from the use of sub-standard cylinders could also scare potential users of gas and undermine efforts to encourage Nigerians to switch over from kerosene, coal and firewood to the use of gas, which is cleaner, cheaper and environmental-friendly.
Most of the cylinders imported into Nigeria are often fake, and this has endangered the lives of gas users.

Local manufacturing as panacea
To curb the influx of cylinders with questionable integrity into the country, the federal government should encourage local manufacturing to ensure that only cylinders of international standard are used in the country.

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), recently raised the alarm over the importation of substandard cooking gas cylinders in the country.
NCDMB had attributed the influx of fake cylinders into the country to insufficient cylinder production in the country, which had prompted the agency to initiate a plan to expand local manufacturing of cylinders.

As part of initiative to boost local manufacturing of cylinders, the NCDMB, had gone into partnership with Bank of Industry (BoI) to produce cylinders capable of meeting the needs of consumers, which is put at three million yearly.

However, this plan is still on the drawing board. Before the NCDMB and BoI’s collaboration, Techno Oil Limited had pioneered the initiative to build the only cylinder manufacturing plant in Nigeria to boost federal government’s efforts to ensure gas utilisation.
The multi-billion-naira state- of- the- art facility is expected to produce five million cylinders of various sizes yearly and generate no fewer than 6,000 jobs.
The plant was built in partnership with a firm from Europe that had built similar plants in over 15 African and Asian countries.

Techno Oil embarked on the project as part of its contribution to the drive by the federal government to deepen LPG consumption.
The building of the plant, which is set to commence production after official inauguration scheduled for next month, would enable the federal government to save scarce resources, expended yearly to import LPG cylinders from Turkey, China, India and other Asian countries.

Before Techno Oil built this ultra-modern plant, the only two companies producing cylinders that were established in the country had collapsed several years ago on account of poor electricity supply in the country and federal government’s policies that strangulated local manufacturers.

It is imperative that companies like Techno Oil that took the bull by the horns to invest scare resources to create employment opportunities and reduce Nigeria’s over-dependence on importation should be incentivised through tax holidays, import waivers and other generous incentives to encourage more investors.

With her abundant gas resources, Nigeria is number one producer of gas in Africa and among the top 10 globally but has the lowest per capita consumption of LPG in the continent.
The resultant indoor pollution and deforestation arising from the use of firewood, coal and kerosene as domestic fuel has caused damages to health and the environment.

This trend can only be reversed if local cylinder manufacturers are encouraged to boost the production of high quality cylinders and accessories at lower costs, thereby reducing the high start-up costs of switching over from the use of dirty fuels to gas usage.