By Bassey Udo
The reforms in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry have brought significant changes and transformation in recent times, the Authority Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Saidu Mohammed, has said.
Mohammed, who spoke on “Driving Nigeria’s Downstream Renaissance: Regulation, Investment, and Market Confidence” at the 2026 Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES), Abuja said for several decades, the country’s downstream petroleum sector’s value chain has been associated with negative sectoral performance indicators such as infrastructural deficit, weak market structures, sub-optimal supply chain efficiency, inadequate investment, poor regulatory compliance and unacceptable operational safety and environmental indices.
Focusing on the summit sub-theme: “Driving Domestic Value: Transforming Downstream Markets and Refining,” Mohammed said the narrative was rapidly changing as the sector was truly witnessing the early, but irreversible signs of a renaissance and transformation.
The change, he said, was driven by bold reform, enabled by investment sustained by effective market and operational
regulatory enablement.
In the few years of operating the new legal framework of the Oil and Gas sector in the form of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA 2021), he said the downstream sector has evolved into a fully liberalized market and no longer
defined by scarcity and supply uncertainty.
He said supply stability has consistently ensured sufficiency of all petroleum products, adding that the pricing structure of the downstream sector was becoming more driven by market fundamentals and generally attaining the stability level required for attracting investment in the sector of the
economy.
The supply chain landscape of the sector which before depended significantly on the import of nearly all petroleum products for a long time, he pointed out, was rapidly transforming with growing supply through the nation’s growing domestic refining capacity, expansion of gas-based alternative fuels, improved logistics, and increased private-sector participation.
He identified the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, the largest single-train refinery in the world with an installed capacity of 650,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd) at the core of the transformation in the sector.
Currently, he said Dangote Refinery was contributing a significant portion of the total volume of petroleum products supply in the country and in some cases 100% of the country’s domestic consumption requirement of petroleum products.
Upscaling the refinery’s installed operational capacity, he pointed out, was necessary to fulfill the national aspirations of making Nigeria a regional and continental energy hub.
He expressed optimism that the issued Licences to Establish(LTEs) refineries, which are being progressed through various levels of completion, coupled with the rehabilitation of the four refineries by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd would improve the overall installed refining capacity in Nigeria to well over 1 million barrels per day in the medium term.
He applauded the bold economic reforms by the present administration, saying has created the change that the downstream sector was currently enjoying and would continue to leverage upon for sustained sectoral
growth in the future.
“The cumulative impact of the full deregulation of the downstream sector; the harmonization of the foreign exchange market; the incentivization and deepening the use of gas and the trading of crude and product in Naira has reduced the fiscal economic losses of importing Petroleum Product by over N6 trillion in the first nine months in
2025” he said.
Besides, he said the strategic growth in the country’s gas sector was a major energy provider in Nigeria and the region at large.
He said the strategic efforts by the government and the Industry under the Decade of gas initiative were not merely about volumes, but also about unlocking gas for industrial development, cleaner power, transport fuels, and manufacturing linkages to transform Nigeria’s energy mix and broaden economic impact.
Acknowledging the importance of infrastructure in the industry, the NMDPRA boss said this alone was not enough to create a change, saying markets flourish only where rules are clear, institutions are credible, and
investors trust the system.
This, he pointed out, was why the sector regulation was at the heart of Nigeria’s downstream transformation.
He said the regulatory philosophy in the agency was anchored on deliberate regulation to enable value, not inhibit it.
Under the PIA, the NMDPRA has shifted from discretionary controls to predictable, rule-based oversight that provide clarity on licensing, tariffs, product quality, open access, and market conduct.
He said the focus of the Authority was on creating a level playing field where competition, not administrative intervention, drives efficiency; ensuring supply security, while allowing market forces to function; protecting consumers without undermining investor returns, as well as balancing affordability with sustainability, particularly in gas-based fuels and cleaner energy solutions.
The agency, he assured, would continue to collaborate with its partners and stakeholders to sustain a fair and transparent regulatory framework for the midstream and downstream sector of the petroleum industry.
He stressed the need for continued collaboration between private and public sectors in the funding required to sustain the changes in the sector.
Identifying the needs of the sector in the form of long-term private capital (local and international) flowing confidently into refineries, depots, pipelines, retail
networks, gas infrastructure, and new energy value chains, he said the desired changes would not be possible without them.
As the regulatory authority, Mohammed said the task before the NMDPRA was to de-risk investment, by ensuring fairness, transparency, and consistency and regulatory excellence through optimal licensing and permitting efficiencies; the development of commercially viable frameworks, as well as ensuring market transparency and data integrity and availability.
