Registration, Monitoring of Petrol Stations, Depots Begin December

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has stated that it will commence the remote monitoring, registration and accreditation of all petroleum products depot from December 1, 2020.

The agency further said the automation will extend to retail outlets and the entire downstream oil and gas industry with the launch of the newly established Downstream Remote Monitoring Systems (DRMS).

In a statement issued in Abuja by the Head of Public Affairs of the DPR, Mr Paul Osu, it was stressed that the DRMS is expected to take off next month after the launch in Abuja.

Mr Osu explained that the DRMS is a web-based solution designed to provide intelligent regulatory and inventory management system for petroleum products supply and distribution from depot to retail outlets and also as a regulatory tool to monitor retail outlets and depot activities.

He said, “Other features of the application include retail outlets accreditation and re-registration, nationwide automated product inventory management, retail outlets coordinate recording for mapping purposes and transactions management and report generation of dealers nationwide.

“The establishment of DRMS is another strategic initiative of DPR to continue to create opportunities and enable business in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.”

This is coming after the DPR launched the National Production Monitoring System (NPMS), another online platform to assist the oil and gas regulator accurately monitor national crude oil production and exports, through the provision of a system for direct and independent acquisition of production data from oil and gas facilities in Nigeria.

This is to ensure timely and accurate reporting of production figures and export data. This is also expected to guard against the crude oil theft that is prevalent in Nigeria’s upstream oil sector or reported cases of crude oil that is sold but unaccounted for.

The NPMS is an initiative that is developed as a replacement for the current paper-based report and ensures ready production reporting to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and other agencies.