Major Marketers Insists Petrol Price Capping Won’t Stabilise Market Structure

The Major Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAM), has said that petrol price capping by the federal government is not encouraging investment and competition in the downstream market.

The Association’s Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer, Clement Isong, says government arbitrary price caps are not solutions to the petroleum market challenges in Nigeria.

Isong stated that petroleum price capping comes with market distortions and lacks in competitiveness among operators.

Speaking during a virtual webinar organised by the Association in partnership with S&P global energy, Isong while speaking on one of the discussion points of the webinar, “Structuring Nigeria’s domestic distribution framework” said government arbitrary price caps are not solutions to the petroleum market challenges in Nigeria.

Isong noted that rather than it’s continued distortion of market prices, government should rather focus more on transparent, market driven pricing regime, efficient distribution and the adoption of measures that could help address supply bottlenecks and reduction of operating costs.

He also advocated a well-structured market that would enable competition, improve supply security to support better outcomes for customers without necessarily relying on government imposed price controls or broad based fuel subsidies.

Isong in his presentation also outlined other priorities for improving the efficiency and resilience of Nigeria’s domestic distribution market.

He insisted that supply coordination can be achieved only if government can prioritise domestic refinery output and using imports on the other hand to bridge supply gaps to manage disruptions.

Isong said bulk supply arrangements can also be achieved through the establishment of clearer terms of engagement to help drive product access, pricing, delivery schedules including contractual obligations amongst others.

Speaking on another discussion point of the webinar, “Developing a west african reference market”, S&P global energy acknowledged how geopolitical tensions from the middle east crisis including refining disruptions and changing global supply dynamics continues to impact on petroleum products pricing and the pressure foist on middle distillates, particularly diesel and aviation fuel.

The S&P global energy is calling for an urgent need for regional pricing benchmarks that better reflect West African market conditions noted that greater transparency, reliable market data and industry adoption will be essential to building a credible reference market.