Asumah Moro, an avid reader of rawgist.com is worried about the recurring gas explosions in Ghana and has put together some suggestions he believes will help stop the trend.
Enjoy his piece:
Several oil and gas explosions have occured in this country since the concept of liberalization of down stream oil and gas sector was introduced.
After the Atomic Gas explosion, Ghana is looking for ways and strategies to deal with the frequent explosions characterising the sector.
Hence my proposal to the government.
- The government should recruit and train Safety Engineers to have the capacity to handle safety protocols in the downstream oil and gas sector.
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There should be a special fund of which fuel station operators or owners will contribute a token of their profit into; it is out of this, that the safety Engineers will be paid.
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Either each engineer will be assigned to a fuel station or two or more fuel station to an Engineer.
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It will be their (Safety Engineers) responsibility to ensure that all the safety protocols in offloading fuel(gas) from tankers to the tanks at the station are duely followed.
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No fuel can be offloaded from tankers to tanks at the station in the absence of a safety engineer.
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Any explosion that may occur as a result of a breach in the safety protocol will lead to the prosecution of the safety engineer as well as those along the safety protocol at the fuel station.
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All tanker drivers and mates should be trained as technicians and empowered to understand the processes involved in loading and offloading fuel into and from tankers. They should also have the capacity to handle leakages of fuel from their tracks.
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There is a new technology which shows that gas tanks just like oil tanks can be buried or constructed underground with all its corrosion issues well addressed.
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Old stations should be given time lines to implement this whiles New stations springing up are directed to adopt
it. -
The size of the gas tanks in residential areas should not be the same as those found in outskirts cities and towns. This will reduced the impact it will have on residence should there be an explosion.
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Fire tenders should be assigned to one or more filling stations anytime there is a discharge of fuel especially gas from tankers to tanks at the fuel station.
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Cost of the activities of these tenders will be paid from the fund set as stated above (point 2).
I believe if these steps are carefully followed the rate of explosion at the fuel stations will reduce drastically if not stop altogether. Hence there would not be the need to close fuel stations in residential areas.
In my opinion this is more economically prudent since operations of New and old fuel stations will continue, averting the fear of possible lay-offs of workers that may be affected.