Oil, gas operators increasingly flouting regulations, safety rules – DPR, NNPC

Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr Maikanti Baru 

ABUJA—Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, yesterday, disclosed that operators in the downstream segment of Nigerian petroleum industry are increasingly flouting Standard Operating Procedures in the sector.


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Similarly, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, also declared that non-compliance with regulations by operators was the biggest challenge in the Nigerian petroleum industry.

 Speaking in Abuja at the DPR Annual General Stakeholders’ Meeting, Director-General of DPR, Mr. Mordecai Ladan, lamented that the increasing penchant of the operators to flout the operating procedures as well as their refusal to comply with regulations and guidelines was bringing about increasing safety challenges in the downstream sector.

 Ladan, who was represented by Mr. Idris Ali, DPR Zonal Controller, Maiduguri, however, noted that DPR would not fold its arms in the face of this action, adding that the agency would utilise the powers vested on it by the constitution to ensure that all oil and gas operators conformed with national and international industry practices and standards.

 He further declared that the DPR had automated its processes in line with the Federal Government’s drive to ensure ease of doing business, adding that the process of issuing licences for both downstream and upstream operations are now online. Regulatory compliance biggest challenge— NNPC  Speaking in the same vein, Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Maikanti Baru, bemoaned the refusal of operators to comply with regulations in the petroleum industry, noting that it was hampering the growth of the industry. Baru, who was represented by Chief Operating Officer, Downstream, of the NNPC, Mr. Henry Ikem-Obih, disclosed that compliance with regulations would eliminate crisis in the industry and guarantee the long-term viability of the industry. 

He said:  “Challenges for the industry of this size, would always be in getting all operators to fully comply with regulations. ‘’Compliance with regulations, we would say, is the biggest challenge in the industry today.  Just for people to do the right things according to various laws and regulations we have in the industry. “If everybody plays their part in achieving and sustaining compliance, we would have a pain-free experience for  consumers as well as  operators in long term viable businesses.”