DPR upgrades from manual to digital services October

From: Ali Abare, Gombe

The Department for Petroleum Resources (DPR) said it would upgrade it services from manual to digital by going online beginning from October.

DPR North East zonal controller, Ali Idris Zoaka, disclosed this, on Thursday, at an interactive session with oil marketers from the zone in Gombe.

Zoaka told journalists that with this new development, oil marketers were expected to key into the programme for ease of doing business.

He said by going digital through its online platform, the DPR was seeking to hasten the process of obtaining approvals, registration, renewal of licenses and site assessment.

Zoaka said it had become necessary to sensitise marketers on the upgrade of services by the department, adding that marketers from Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe states were in attendance.

“We need to sensitise them because we are moving to computer-based operation which makes it easier and simple by shortening the time for processing applications,” he said.

Earlier,  Operations Controller, Gombe Field Office, Abdullahi Abawa, while welcoming participants to the interactive session, called on marketers to key into the new initiative by going online to do business with the DPR.

He, however, said that the Department would continue to conduct businesses with the manual platform while the online platform would be introduced gradually.

Abawa urged them not to shy away from coming to the DPR to make enquiries, warning them to desist from patronising touts and middlemen, adding that marketers were often intimidated by third parties while processing manifest at the depots.

Also speaking, Head of Operations, Amos Bernard, identified some of the lapses observed in most filling stations in the zone, warning that owners of such filling stations must obey basic rules guiding the setting up of such facilities in order to prevent fire outbreaks.

Bernard noted that most filling stations lacked earthing cables for discharging petroleum products from trucks into filling stations, underground storage tanks. He described the trend as dangerous.

He also warned the marketers against diversion of petroleum products, particularly PMS, from consigned destination without approval, threatening to henceforth sanction defaulters.

Speaking on behalf of the participants, Mahmood Abdulfatah, of the Major  Marketers,  welcomed the new initiative by the DPR saying the development would ease doing business with the agency.