Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Min­is­ters Dr Roodal Mooni­lal and Ernesto Ke­sar have or­dered an ur­gent re­view of reg­u­la­tions gov­ern­ing Liq­ue­fied Pe­tro­le­um Gas (LPG) fol­low­ing a se­ries of dead­ly ex­plo­sions and fires linked to do­mes­tic gas cylin­ders.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries (MEEI) ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the fam­i­lies and friends of those who lost their lives or were in­jured in re­cent LPG-re­lat­ed in­ci­dents.

The most re­cent tragedies in­clude the deaths of Ria George of Debe on Sep­tem­ber 27 and Be­vaughn Joseph of Pe­nal on Oc­to­ber 17. Both vic­tims suc­cumbed to se­vere burn in­juries sus­tained in ex­plo­sions al­leged­ly linked to gas tank fires at their homes. Joseph’s house was al­so par­tial­ly de­stroyed. His fu­ner­al is sched­uled for to­day at the Boysie Boodoo Fu­ner­al Home and Cre­ma­to­ri­um in Pe­nal.

“The Min­istry rec­og­nizes the pub­lic’s con­cerns re­gard­ing these un­for­tu­nate in­ci­dents and re­it­er­ates its ded­i­ca­tion to main­tain­ing the high­est safe­ty stan­dards in the han­dling, dis­tri­b­u­tion, and use of LPG. En­sur­ing the safe­ty of our cit­i­zens is our fore­most pri­or­i­ty,” the MEEI said in the re­lease.

The Min­istry said it has con­vened dis­cus­sions with key stake­hold­ers, in­clud­ing the Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Agency (OS­HA) and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice (TTFS). It is al­so col­lab­o­rat­ing with oth­er rel­e­vant or­gan­i­sa­tions to strength­en reg­u­la­to­ry over­sight, raise pub­lic aware­ness, and im­prove safe­ty stan­dards for LPG cylin­ders and re­lat­ed equip­ment.

The Min­istry said its tech­ni­cal staff had pre­pared draft LPG reg­u­la­tions in 2020, which were nev­er im­ple­ment­ed. How­ev­er, Min­is­ters Mooni­lal and Ke­sar have now in­struct­ed that these reg­u­la­tions be re­viewed and up­dat­ed as a mat­ter of ur­gency.

“The Min­istry has al­so re­quest­ed that the TTBS (Trinidad and To­ba­go Bu­reau of Stan­dards) re­con­vene its Spec­i­fi­ca­tions Com­mit­tee for LPG to re­view and up­date na­tion­al stan­dards,” the re­lease stat­ed. “This re­view will en­sure that all LPG cylin­ders, ac­ces­sories, and re­lat­ed in­fra­struc­ture meet mod­ern safe­ty and per­for­mance re­quire­ments. The next meet­ing of the Com­mit­tee is ex­pect­ed to be held in ear­ly No­vem­ber 2025.”

The Min­istry said en­gage­ments are al­so un­der­way with the Na­tion­al Pe­tro­le­um Mar­ket­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (NP), Ram­co In­dus­tries Lim­it­ed, and Nat­pet In­vest­ments Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed to as­sess and strength­en ex­ist­ing in­spec­tion and safe­ty pro­to­cols.

“These dis­cus­sions are fo­cused on en­sur­ing that all en­ti­ties along the LPG sup­ply chain ad­here to the high­est op­er­a­tional and safe­ty stan­dards, there­by pro­tect­ing both work­ers and con­sumers,” the re­lease not­ed.

Em­pha­sis­ing the need for vig­i­lance in the safe han­dling and use of LPG at every lev­el—from sup­pli­ers and dis­trib­u­tors to house­holds—the Min­istry said it will in­ten­si­fy pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion cam­paigns.

“In part­ner­ship with var­i­ous stake­hold­ers, the Min­istry will en­hance pub­lic aware­ness ini­tia­tives aimed at ed­u­cat­ing cit­i­zens on the prop­er prac­tices for stor­ing, con­nect­ing, and us­ing LPG cylin­ders in both do­mes­tic and com­mer­cial en­vi­ron­ments,” it said.

The MEEI added, “Our pri­ma­ry fo­cus re­mains on en­hanc­ing reg­u­la­to­ry over­sight, en­sur­ing com­pli­ance with safe­ty stan­dards, and pre­vent­ing any fu­ture tragedies.”

The Min­istry al­so thanked stake­hold­ers for their on­go­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion and reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to en­sur­ing LPG re­mains a safe and re­li­able en­er­gy source for cit­i­zens.