Petroleum Ministry to raid CNG stations

Tragic loss of life in two recent incidents of blazed vehicles which were using compressed natural gas (CNG) as fuel has forced government to take some steps but planned measures are set to fail. Petroleum Ministry has held only CNG stations responsible for these incidents and plans to conduct raids to penalise gas stations filling gas in vehicles having substandard CNG kits and cylinders.
A meeting held to find root causes of incidents related to blazing of vehicles was attended by officials of Petroleum Ministry, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan (HDIP), representatives of Chief Inspector of Explosives (CIE). A statement issued after the meeting said, while taking serious notice of recent incidents of blazed vehicles wherein huge loss of life occurred, Secretary Petroleum Ejaz Chaudhry has directed to conduct raids on CNG pumps that provide gas to vehicles that are installed with sub-standard CNG kits and cylinders. He directed OGRA to devise and implement a comprehensive inspection plan for CNG stations and take strict punitive action against those CNG pumps which did not practice safety measures. It was decided that joint teams comprising of representatives of ministry, OGRA, HDIP and CIE would conduct surprise checking of CNG stations to ensure compliance of CNG Safety Rules (Production and Marketing), 1992. Any CNG station found filling gas to any vehicle that contains sub-standard CNG cylinder or fitting it, would be immediately penalised and sealed off. Ministry would also communicate to provincial governments to implement CNG safety rules. Moreover, concerned departments were directed to launch public awareness campaign to educate general masses regarding installation of quality CNG kits and cylinders from licensed and authorised vendors and to insist upon public transport operators to install quality CNG kits and its regular safety inspection. Terming the announcement as an attempt to hoodwink the government and people, Chairman All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha said petroleum ministry instead of accepting weaknesses in the policy, regulations and implementation has tried to evade all its responsibilities by putting all the blame on CNG stations. He said gas stations have no mechanism to check at the spot the quality of CNG kits and cylinders. APCNGA, he said, had sought permission from petroleum ministry five years back to set up CNG kits and cylinders quality certification laboratory that would have provided free of cost service to people. However, he said for the last many years, ministry has never bothered to inform the association on progress on their proposal. He said ministry, OGRA and department of explosives under ministry of industries were all involved in an internal fight to take control of proposed CNG kits and cylinders testing lab as it will allow minting of money from the people. He said under the rules CNG stations could be inspected but he was not able understand how a gas station could be fined for supplying gas to a vehicle having substandard kit or cylinder when there were no rules which make their checking mandatory after a specific period from a certifying lab. It is important to mention that National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum was recently informed by OGRA officials that their investigations show that two CNG cylinders have exploded during gas filling while rest of the tragic incident happened due to other reasons. A report of ministry of petroleum submitted to Prime Minister mentions factors responsible for accidents in CNG fitted public vehicles includes poorly trained drivers; sub-standard maintenance of vehicles and improper certification by motor vehicles examiners; installation of sub-standard CNG cylinders and kits and control equipment by the un-authorised conversion workshops; increased number of cylinders in public service vehicles without considering design specifications or axle loading to contour impact of gas load shedding and non-compliance with safe re-fueling procedure at CNG stations.