STANDARDS governing the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders and steel compressed gas cylinders in Guyana are now closer to being a mandatory requirement for users and distributors.
On Thursday the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) through its standardisation department hosted a stakeholders public consultation session as part of the process towards drafting required standards for the industry.
The consultation session which was held in the Training Room of the GNBS at the Exhibition Complex, Sophia, Georgetown, drew a number of stakeholders within the industry and they were offered the opportunity to make interventions.
Technical officer of the standardisation department at GNBS, Hemraj Saanichera, told stakeholders that the standards the GNBS wants to introduce, are two-fold: the first being “specification for the storage, handling and transportation of LPG cylinders;” the second being the “specification for the storage, handling and transport [of] Steel compressed gas cylinders”.
Engendering Director of Massy gas products Augustus Harris, in his presentation to the stakeholders said the primary reason for the consultation is to insure that the industry operates in a safe manner and that as operators within the industry, moving the standard from a voluntary standard to a mandatory standard will help in ensuring that operators in the industry take the next step to ensure that they are compliant with all the requirements of the standard.
In explaining the process by which GNBS began the process of standardising the industry, Hemraj explained that the Bureau first had a standards-review process which was afterwards sent to stakeholders who filled out questionnaires. It is from these questionnaires Hemraj said that stakeholders determined that the steel-compressed gas cylinders are safe; they nevertheless recommended changes to be made to the LPG cylinders.
Because of these recommendations, the GNBS formed a gas committee which then went through the standards for the LPG cylinders; this resulted in changes being made by that committee which will be made mandatory.
However, to make the changes mandatory, the rules of the GNBS require that the standards be issued for public comments for a period of 60 days. This 60-day period will end on January 3, 2020, at which time the committee will meet again to dispose of the comments that were received before the bureau finalises the standards.
The standards are expected to be published sometime in February 2020, after which it would be implemented by the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA).
With the operationalisation of these standards, Hemraj said consumers and distributers will be able to operate in a safer environment.
The GNBS has advised persons wishing to make their contributions to formulation of the standards, to do so by visiting the bureau’s website at https://gnbsgy.org/technical-committees/ and click on standards and then the standards for public comment section.