The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has developed guidelines for setting up Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) retail outlets in the country. The document, which is expected to help ensure sanity in the LPG retail sector, is expected to be launched next month. Mr John Dekyem Attafuah, Chief Executive of the NPA, who made this known at a stakeholders meeting in Kumasi, said guidelines for the petroleum retail sector had also been developed and would be launched soon. Hitherto, there was no one-shop document containing guidelines for setting up an LPG or petroleum retail outlet. Mr Attafuah said that the guidelines contained safety measures, land sizes required as well as other requirements for setting up and operating an LPG or petroleum retail outlet. The NPA was set up by an Act of Parliament in 2005 (Act 691) to regulate, oversee and monitor activities in the petroleum downstream industry to establish a Unified Petroleum Price Fund and to cater for related needs. Mr Attafuah said there was the need to draw attention to and train people in the LPG retail sector, considering the explosion that occurred at the Engas Filling Station in Kumasi in September 2007. A gas explosion at the Engas Filling Station at Asokwa, a suburb of Kumasi, in September 2007 resulted in the death of three persons, injury to many other people and massive destruction to property. Apart from the Kumasi explosion, there was another incident at the University of Cape Coast where a gas cylinder exploded and yet another incident in which two people died in the course of cleaning an LPG storage tank at the Nnatony Gas Filling Station in Kumasi. According to the chief executive of the NPA, these incidents showed that there was the urgent need to do more to streamline the processes and noted that country could not afford to experience another major gas explosion before taking drastic action to address the problem. The meeting with the stakeholders in Kumasi was to enable the NPA to interact with them so as to ensure smooth operation of petroleum and LPG retail outlets. Present at the meeting were officials from the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Ghana Standards Board (GSB), the Police Service, Town and Country Planning, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Ghana Highways Authority (GHA). Mr Attafuah said there was the need to collaborate more with the stakeholders especially where the NPA had opened a northern sector zonal office in Kumasi. Mr Isaac Tagoe, Technical Director at the NPA, for his part, said his outfit needed the support of all stakeholders to be able to go about its duties. He added that some petrol retail outlets, which the NPA had closed down for not meeting the minimum required standards, resumed operations immediately the staff of the NPA left their premises and that it was in such circumstances that the support of the police was needed to enforce the law. He said the NPA had been receiving complaints from applicants at the offices of the EPA to get the permit to open petroleum retail outlets, hence the need to collaborate more with the EPA to ensure efficiency and information flow. He said the essence of the meeting was to collaborate more and know what was expected of all stakeholders so that the public would not suffer. Mr Mike Gizo, Board member of the NPA and a former Member of Parliament, said it was the aspirati on of the NPA to be a sound and responsible organisation to enable the petroleum sector to operate properly. Source: Daily Graphic