House Moves to Withdraw Expired Gas Cylinders from Circulation

Udora Orizu

The House of Representatives has urged the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to design a strategy to regulate the use of old gas cylinders as well as enforce the withdrawal and replacement of expired gas cylinders from circulation.

The House also mandated its Committee on Gas Resources to ensure the implementation and report back within four weeks for further legislative action.

The resolutions were sequel to the adoption of a motion sponsored by Hon. Sergius Ogun at the plenary yesterday.

Moving the motion, Ogun noted that over 9 million people in Nigeria utilise Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) for cooking and 90 percent of the LPG cooking gas are contained in expired cylinders.

He made reference to numerous incidences of cooking gas explosions in Nigeria such as the gas cylinder explosion in Anambra State in 2017 that led to the loss of lives and destruction of property.

He explained that the cylinders outlive their safety limits after 15 years, and most cylinders in Nigeria are over 30 years making them very dangerous for use.

The lawmaker, while expressing concern about the non-testing and proliferation of expired gas cylinders currently in circulation across the country, said there’s need to invest in-cylinder operating plants and to have cylinder recycling plants as the community lacks cylinder plants.

“Investment in the local production of gas cylinders will allow for the affordable replacement of old/obsolete cylinders. I am disturbed that the continuous use of old cylinders can cause explosions especially in poorly controlled environments,” Ogun said.