The Philippine Institute of Petroleum, an organization of oil industry players, welcomed the Department of Energy’s move to review technical and safety policies governing technology-solution retail outlets, such as fuel vending machines.
A TSRO in Calapan, Mindoro exploded on Sunday while receiving fuel from a tanker and the adjacent residential properties and establishments were also severely damaged as a result of the incident. A TSRO is defined by the DOE as a type of retail outlet resulting from emerging technologies that addresses the requirements of liquid fuels in areas currently served by the illegal “bote-bote” trade.
“We thank the DOE for heeding our call to look at and review existing regulations governing the TSROs given the risks that some of these type of retail outlets, which may be non-compliant to DOE’s rules, pose to the general public. We commit to DOE our full support for its thorough assessment of TSROs operating in the country,” the PIP said in a statement.