A journalist and a lawyer have called for open licensing to drive competitiveness in the petroleum downstream sector and enhance market accessibility.
They made the call at the a media roundtable organised by Extractive360, a media outlet, in Abuja, on Wednesday.
Presenting the welcome remarks, Juliet Ukamwosu, executive director, extractive360, said the Nigerian petroleum downstream sector is navigating a complex phase marked by both opportunities and challenges.
She said the sector’s current state is characterised by fluctuating product prices, high operating costs, irregular foreign exchange rates, import dependency for refined products, and infrastructural bottlenecks.
Ukamwosu noted that key challenges in the sector include price volatility, infrastructural bottlenecks, aging infrastructure, lack of investment and import dependence, among others.
She said liberalisation policy has opened up the sector to more private sector participation, investment in storage and distribution infrastructure, and conversations around refining capacity expansion.
In his presentation entitled, ‘Competitiveness in the Nigerian Petroleum Downstream Sector,’ Olasubomi Chucku, a lawyer, noted that despite the enactment of the PIA, the market is still fairly closed.
Other challenges he noted include a near or emerging monopoly in refining and weak price competition due to limited participants, artificial scarcity as well as regulation inertia due to superlative influences
In his recommendations, the legal expert called for the development of open access regulatory platforms with API integration, and limitation of partners from dominating the market.
He urged the government to ensure that there are no non-discriminatory concessions while applying taxes across board.
