Ikenga Ugochinyere, chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), has pledged legislative support for establishing a transparent West African refined fuel pricing benchmark.

Mr Ugochinyere made the commitment at the West Africa Refined Fuel Market 2026 Conference in Abuja, organised by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) on Tuesday.

Mr Ugochinyere said the emergence of West Africa as a refining hub made it imperative for the region to develop a credible benchmark for refined petroleum products.

He said the region had historically been a “price taker” despite being a major consumer of refined petroleum products.

“For the better part of half a century, West Africa has been a price taker in a market it consumes from but does not speak in. We import the product, then we import the price signal, and we pay a premium for both.

“We will work with the NMDPRA and the West Africa Regulator Forum to ensure that the price reporting architecture underpinning West African reference prices enjoys clear statutory support and enforceable compliance obligations. A voluntary benchmark is a fragile benchmark,” he said.

He said the development of the 650,000 barrels-per-day Dangote Refinery, the ongoing rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries, and reforms under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) had changed the regional market dynamics.

He said a region that refines petroleum products must also develop the capacity to price them.

“A region that refines must price. A region that prices must have a benchmark. A benchmark that is not ours will be someone else’s,” he said.

Mr Ugochinyere identified liquidity, deliverability, data integrity and trust as the four foundations required for a credible regional benchmark. He said investment in storage facilities, jetties, pipelines, depots, metering, road and rail evacuation infrastructure was central to establishing transparent price discovery.

He said a credible regional benchmark would enable West Africa to move from being described by external markets to defining its own market realities.

Nigeria is leading a regional push to establish an independent West African fuel price benchmark.

Driven by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), the initiative aims to replace external pricing indices from Western Europe and the Mediterranean with a transparent, locally determined market system.

(NAN)