Special inspectors to check CNG cylinders

The Ministry of Industries has hired special inspectors to keep a check on the safety of vehicular CNG cylinders while the All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) will also establish a countrywide vehicle checking system from December 28.
According to a statement issued here on Monday, the Ministry of Industries Department of Explosives has devised a comprehensive plan for checking the safety of CNG cylinders.
The statement also said the recent accidents involving vehicular CNG cylinders were caused by the use of low-pressure cylinders for CNG storage. The ministry will implement a comprehensive safety plan that will include awareness campaigns and training programmes in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme and the provincial governments to avoid such accidents.
It added that the government was not placing the Department of Explosives under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources. The Explosives Department is mandated to ensure implementation of safety rules in the petroleum, CNG, industrial and mining sectors.
Meanwhile, the APCNGA Central Chairman Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha has said that checking system would be conducted in 25 major cities of the country to prevent such accidents from occurring.
Dispelling the impression that the association was launching the initiative on the directives of any official authority, he said, the association had not received any instructions from the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA).
“We are in negotiation with OGRA to resolve the issue and have started to check vehicles for safeguarding lives.”
Earlier, the OGRA has asked the APCNGA to stop filling CNG in the public service vehicles, which do not follow the standard CNG regulations. In that regard, the authority also called a meeting of APCNGA after reports of accidents involving CNG cylinders.
In the meeting attended by APCNGA and senior officers of OGRA, it was observed that the main reason behind most of such accidents was faulty CNG kits and location of cylinders in the vehicles. It was also pointed out that the CNG stations were not following the mandatory refueling procedures.
The OGRA chairman has also asked all the CNG stations owners to follow the CNG refueling procedure and the APCNGA to constitute checking teams. These teams would be comprising representatives of OGRA, APCNGA and the Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan.