By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja
The Federal Government has directed the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, to ensure that petroleum marketers do not exploit Nigerians through excessive pricing under the deregulated downstream market.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, gave the directive on Monday in Abuja while delivering the keynote address at the 2026 NMDPRA General Counsel and Legal Advisers Forum.
The two-day forum has the theme “Beyond Compliance: Driving Regulatory Certainty and Investment Confidence in Nigeria’s Petroleum Sector”.
Lokpobiri said although the downstream sector had been fully deregulated, the regulator must ensure that deregulation does not become an avenue for profiteering at the expense of consumers.
According to him, following the de-escalation of tensions in the Middle East and the decline in global crude oil prices, Nigerians expected corresponding reductions in the pump prices of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol.
However, this has not happened as refiners and marketeters have continued to sell and dispense at elevated pump price despite significant reduction in crude oil price from peak $120 per barrel to $72 per barrel last week.
He said: “Following the de-escalation of tensions between Iran and the United States, we expected to see commensurate downward adjustment in the prices of PMS and other petroleum products. However, that has not yet happened.
“While we believe that market forces will eventually restore equilibrium, the regulator also has a statutory responsibility to ensure that deregulation does not become an avenue for profiteering. This must be done in line with the extant provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act.”
The Minister also charged the Authority to intensify monitoring to ensure consumers receive the correct quantity of fuel purchased at filling stations.
“Beyond allowing prices to be determined by market forces, the question is: what is the regulator doing to ensure that consumers receive the correct quantity of product? When someone pays for 10 litres of Premium Motor Spirit, they should receive exactly 10 litres, not less,” he said.
Lokpobiri noted that despite recent geopolitical tensions arising from the conflict involving the United States and Iran, Nigeria did not experience fuel shortages, attributing the stability to the deregulation of the downstream sector and the operationalisation of domestic refineries.
He described the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, as the foundation for transforming Nigeria’s petroleum industry but stressed that building investor confidence now depends on consistent and predictable regulation.
“The PIA gave us the architecture. What we must now build is the culture, the institutional habits, the interpretive discipline and the regulatory character that make the law’s objectives real for every investor evaluating Nigeria against any other destination in the world”, he said.
The Minister urged legal advisers and general counsels in the petroleum industry to serve as strategic partners in promoting investment rather than becoming obstacles through unnecessary regulatory bottlenecks.
“We will not be judged by the number of regulations we produce or the volume of guidelines we issue. We will be judged by the investments we attract, the businesses we enable, the jobs we create and the value we leave behind for future generations”, he added.
Earlier, the Authority Chief Executive of NMDPRA, Mallam Rabiu Umar, said the petroleum industry had reached a stage where regulatory certainty, transparency and investor confidence had become more important than mere compliance with regulations.
Umar said the implementation of the PIA had shifted the focus from what the law provides to how it is being implemented and whether it is delivering the certainty required by investors.
According to him, “Compliance remains the foundation. The broader objective is to create a petroleum industry characterised by certainty, predictability, transparency and confidence”.
He noted that the Authority recognises implementation challenges and areas of ambiguity within the regulatory framework and is committed to engaging stakeholders to improve regulatory outcomes.
The NMDPRA boss assured industry players that under his leadership, the Authority would continue to regulate fairly and consistently while strengthening transparency and stakeholder engagement.
In his presentation, the Secretary and Legal Adviser, NMDPRA, Dr Joseph Tolorunse explained that regulatory certainty has ensured stability of fiscal rules throughout project lifespan and avoided policy reversal.
Tolorunse noted that the law has made Nigeria’s oil and gas industry competitive, adding that competitiveness would attract investment with “investment leading to growth”.