Banning gas refill at stations won’t affect business of retail outlets – NPA

The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has said a move by the authority to ban Gas refill at filling stations is not intended to deny the existing retail outlets of their business.

Speaking on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM, the acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Mr Hassan Tampuli explained that “They will continue to be in business and they will be the ones to be selling those cylinders and their businesses will not be affected in anyway.”

The policy will first be piloted in Accra, and later it will be extended to other parts of the country, he said.

According to him, the authority will position the retail outlets in the system to take full advantage of the policy initiative.

“We are putting together a risk assessment team to go all around the retail outlets to examine the current configuration of the retail outlets and to make recommendations as to which ones should still be in existence, which ones we should recommend relocation, and which ones we should recommend improvement in their existing structure. We will do anything to support them to be able to adjust and get a piece of the action,” he said.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) outlets will no longer be allowed to refill cylinders at their plants under a comprehensive national policy aimed at halting gas explosions at gas filling outlets.

Under the policy, soon to be rolled out by the Ministry of Energy, all cylinders will be filled by cylinder bottling plants for onward delivery to retail outlets.

What this means is that individuals, restaurants and organisations that use LPG cylinders will now go to LPG retail outlets with their empty cylinders, pick up filled ones and pay for them upfront.

The new method can be likened to the way some bottled drinks, such as Coca Cola, are sold in Ghana.