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Petroleum regulator firms up new guidelines for transporting petroleum products by road
India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board has issued fresh guidelines on transporting petroleum products by road in the wake of recent tragic accidents involving trucks carrying liquified petroleum gas, or LPG.
The regulator has prohibited transporting petroleum products by road at night and mandated quarterly safety checks of vehicles to ensure that all safety fittings are installed, maintained and tested, as per its regulations.
PNGRB suggested avoiding roads to transport bulk petroleum products over long distances and using pipelines or railway rakes instead. It added that spare pipeline capacity of oil marketing companies be utilized under product sharing or as common carriers to transport petroleum products.
On 10 December, the regulator proposed developing nine LPG pipelines with a cumulative length of 3,470 km to connect 50 bottling plants with ports and refineries.
“In view of the recent road incident involving the transportation of LPG in tank truck resulting in several casualties and injuries, PNGRB has reviewed the relevant existing statutory rules/regulations, contractual obligations between the entity and transporter, existing practices, etc.,” the regulator said in a recent notification.
“While deciding the mode of travel, commerciality should not be the only consideration. Public safety is also an important consideration, particularly when the travel is over long distance and through congested areas,” PNGRB added.
The board has asked oil marketing companies to develop comprehensive journey management plans covering aspects such as authorized stops along a particular route, sensitising drivers and crews on black spots and accident-prone areas, emergency actions to be taken in case of accidents, weather forecast for the route.
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