Uche Cecil Izuora
The Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) is working on a regional strategy to support the development of West African refined fuel market.
This is as the Agency said necessary steps are being taken to ensure the evolution of an open, competitive and contestable market in the domestic product supply chain.
The Authority Chief Executive, Farouk Ahmed, who stated these pointed out that the full price deregulation of petroleum products market has enabled the creation of a level playing field which fosters healthy competition and enables investment opportunities.
On the regional scale, Ahmed said the NMDPRA is partnering with the S&P Global Commodity Insights to organize a workshop targeted at creating a robust platform for regional collaborations among oil industry regulators, policy formulation, creation of a trading hub in West Africa and a more transparent West African pricing assessment and benchmarking.
Speaking at the Petroleum Industry Stakeholders Forum (PISF), he said in the same vein, the industry reform has occasioned adequate supply and distribution of petroleum products in the country, with consumers enjoying competitive prices and value-added services.
The National Energy security has been further enhanced with multiple sources of supply. For the first time in many years, the country witnessed the end-of-year festivities and the beginning of a new year without any supply disruption or product shortages that may have lead to fuel queues.
According to him, the contribution of domestic refineries to national energy supply requirements and participation of other Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in product supply has been enhanced.
Equally, the emerging competitive market environment, downswing in international market price, appreciation in Naira and multiple sources of supply, continue to encourage steady stability in pump price of petroleum products nationwide.
In the refining sector, he said Nigeria is steadily reemerging as a major supply hub.
The biggest single train refinery in the world, the Dangote Refinery, the four NNPCL refineries are gradually being restreamed to ramp up production, our modular refineries are upscaling both in capacities, utilization and in numbers. He said “With these, Nigeria is already a net exporter of some petroleum products with the target of all petroleum commodities. Hounourable Minister Sir, “The NMDPRA will continue to facilitate this aspiration to become reality.
We have taken careful measures to ensure consumer protection in line with PIA requirements. This is to protect citizens from exploitative tendencies and unwholesome practices by the sector participants. “
Turning to the event, he said the Forum as intended is to provide a veritable platform for periodic engagement between critical stakeholders to review the status of the industry, formulate policies, galvanize industry support for policy implementation and deliberate on best actions to resolve emerging concerns.
The Forum he further explained will aid speedy resolution of issues by the policy-making and regulatory bodies thereby helping to mitigate disputes that may otherwise lead to unnecessary and costly litigations or alternative dispute resolutions.