Residents at Haatso in Accra are protesting the siting of a filling station owned by oil marketing company Goil Ghana Limited.

According to the residents, the proximity of the station to homes is cause for worry. What is now a filling station used to be a guest house, the residents claimed.

“It used to be a guest house and all of a sudden it was pulled down to build a filling station. I don’t think it is right. There are houses all around and you don’t think about the people,” Irene Nelson, one resident lamented. Her house shares a wall with the filling station.

According to her, Unity Oil first acquired the guest house for use as a filling station, an action they protested before it was acquired by Goil. 
 

By international standards, there has to be a distance of 50 to 100 metres between gas stations and residential facilities. 

The National Petroleum Authority’s regulations stipulate that gas and fuel stations should be sited at a minimum of 30.8 metres or 100ft from residential areas.

The residents insist these regulations were all violated.

But the oil company says it has satisfied all safety requirements for setting up a fuel station, insisting they never breached any regulations.

Head of health, safety, security and environment at Goil Martin Olu Davis told Joy News: “We believe in operating in very safe environment. We take so many risk assessment into consideration before we site our stations.”

He disclosed that a team from the EPA and the Ghana Fire Service was detailed on Monday, November 12, 2018, to conduct a technical assessment of the situation and posted a positive report. 

“All the technicalities were taken into consideration in terms of measurement of where the tanks are and where the vent pipes are. And they all fall within safe distances. As at now we have upgraded the station. Our vent pipes have been relocated to quite a longer distance from where it used to be,” Mr Davies said.