Create Regional Fuel Price Benchmarks to Curb External Distortions—S&P

S&P Global Energy has urged West African market participants to create credible regional fuel-price benchmarks to reduce the distortions caused by reliance on external pricing references.

The company’s head of Price Reporting Business, Platts, Vera Blei, made the call at the second West African Refined Fuel Market Conference in Abuja on Tuesday.

The conference was organised around the theme, “Funding West Africa Infrastructure and Distribution to Create a Transparent Market for Regional Price Benchmarks.”

Blei said the region could not establish a functional pricing and trading hub by relying solely on existing benchmarks from other markets.

She urged refiners, traders, marketers, terminal operators, financial institutions and other industry stakeholders to take bold steps towards developing a market that reflected West Africa’s own supply, demand and trading conditions.

According to her, S&P Global could provide the foundations for the process through transparent price assessments, market data and industry intelligence, but the responsibility for making the benchmarks effective rested with market participants.

“We can give the foundations and make the reference prices available. It is down to everybody in this room to take bold steps to really bring them alive,” she said.

Blei said the region’s proposed benchmarks would only become credible when supported by actual commercial transactions, sufficient market liquidity, reliable reporting and broad participation.

“Those who are going to create the true benchmarks for this region” are the market participants, she said.

She said the tendency to rely on established international benchmarks was understandable because such references were already liquid and widely used.

However, she said West African stakeholders would have to actively use regional price assessments if they wanted to create a market that accurately reflected local conditions.

“The pull would always be to go to the benchmarks that already exist because they are liquid,” Blei said.

She added that the creation of a new marketplace required sustained participation from buyers and sellers, as well as confidence in the quality and relevance of the information supporting the price assessments.

Blei said a credible regional benchmark would improve transparency, support better commercial decisions and help reduce the effect of external market movements on West African fuel prices.

The call followed an earlier warning by the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Rabiu Abdullahi Umar, that developments in Western Europe and the Mediterranean could affect African fuel prices even when they had little connection with local market fundamentals.

Umar had said West Africa needed a price benchmark that reflected its own supply, demand, refining capacity, logistics and market conditions.

Blei said S&P Global had taken steps to expand market information and price reporting for West Africa over the past year.

She disclosed that Platts had introduced intraday regional gasoline-price updates in addition to end-of-day assessments for gasoline, jet fuel and other refined products.

The move, she said, was a response to heightened market volatility and the need to provide more timely information, particularly in relation to importer trigger prices.

She also said the company had launched diesel and jet-fuel assessments in naira per litre, based on regional domestic fundamentals.

According to her, the assessments were intended to help market participants understand how published prices related to actual products, local market conditions and regional supply dynamics.

Blei urged participants to pay close attention to the specifications attached to price assessments, noting that product quality, location, delivery terms and other technical details affected the relevance of a benchmark.

She said transparent and clearly defined assessments were necessary to build trust among refiners, traders, regulators, investors and consumers.

Blei said price transparency alone would not be enough to establish a regional fuel market.

She identified refinery capacity, supply capabilities, logistics networks and operational efficiency as important pillars of the proposed pricing hub.

She said the region needed infrastructure capable of moving products efficiently from refineries to storage facilities, terminals, ports and demand centres.

A functional market, she added, also required the participation of banks, insurers, ship owners, marketers, commodity exchanges, data providers and regulators.

Blei said the development of the West African Regulators Forum, increased publication of market information and the expansion of regional refining capacity had strengthened the foundation for the proposed market.

She cited the publication of market assessments and industry information on supply, consumption, stock trends and demand as positive developments that could support greater transparency.

She also noted the establishment of an S&P Global office and local team in Abuja as evidence of the company’s commitment to supporting market development in Nigeria and the wider region.

Blei said the 2026 conference should mark a shift from planning to implementation.

She said the region had made progress since the previous conference, but stakeholders needed to accelerate efforts to turn the existing framework into an active and liquid market.

The objective, she said, should be to create a pricing system that reflected African market fundamentals and supported more efficient trading across West Africa.

She urged participants to use the conference to develop practical commitments around market reporting, infrastructure investment, regulatory cooperation and commercial participation.

Blei said a credible West African benchmark would emerge only when industry players moved beyond expressing support for the idea and began using regional price references in real transactions.

The development of such a market, she added, would help improve confidence, strengthen regional trade and reduce West Africa’s exposure to price distortions arising from external benchmarks.