Gas explosions: Lagos govt frowns at death rate, to go tough on gas vendors
Ayodele Olalere
Lagos State Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Biodun Ogunleye on Wednesday said the state government is worried at the increasing cases of gas explosions and its accompanying death rate.
He hinted that the state government will soon introduce stringent measures to regulate the operation of Liquefied Natural Gas vendors in the state.
The commissioner spoke during a ministerial press briefing to mark the second term in office of the State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu at Alausa, Ikeja, while answering questions on measures being taken by the government to curb citing of gas and petrol stations around residential areas in the state in view of constant gas explosions which has claimed lives on recent times.
Ogunleye also disclosed that the sum of N3.911 billion has been realized by the state from oil exploration since it became an oil producing state.
He however noted that production has been hampered due to challenges faced by the company managing its exploration.
It is recalled Lagos joined the league of oil-producing states in 2016, with each of the states entitled to 13% derivation fund from the federation account. Others are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers.
It would be recalled that Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Company Limited (YFP), a wholly-owned indigenous firm and operator of the OML 11 commenced the production of crude oil from the field.
“Between 2018-2019, the state government received from the federal government N131 million as part of oil derivation, and between 2020-2021, we also received N3.78 billion but the owners of the assets have been having issues among themselves and as long as they could not produce, there would be no money for Lagos.
“The state government is engaging them to ensure that they return to the field. And we hope that before the end of the year, they will find new technical partners and they can go back to production,” Ogunleye noted.
On the community electrification programme, the commissioner said 6,000 out of the 20,000 units of prepaid energy metres promised Lagosians by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had been distributed to low income communities in the state.