In a review of its method of clamping down on illegal filling stations operating in Nigeria, which it put at about 1,000, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has said it now intends to engage the operators of the facilities in discussions in order to get them properly registered and licensed.

The Southwest Zonal Coordinator of NMDPRA, Mr. Ayo Cardoso, disclosed this in Lagos during an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the agency's one-day Health, Safety, Environment and Community (HSEC) workshop for downstream players.

Cardoso explained that the decision to now engage the operators of the unlicensed filling stations was taken by the agency after realising that the routine clamping down on them, shutting the filling stations down and arresting the promoters had not yielded the desired results.

He said the NMDPRA also realised that it was better to engage them in a special stakeholder meeting where they would be educated on the need for them to come under the licensing regime for proper monitoring and regulation of their activities by the agency.

"I brought it to the fore that we are also doing the same thing with the stakeholder engagement to tell people that are not licensed, that are operating individually. We've been shutting them down, we've been taking them out of business, but what we want to do now is that we are going to engage everybody again, "he said.