By Bassey Udo
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) on Monday opened its 2026 General Counsel and Legal Advisers Forum in Abuja, with top government and regulatory officials stressing the need for regulatory certainty in the downstream and midstream sectors of the petroleum industry to attract new investments in the years ahead.
Most of the participants who spoke on Monday at opening session of the two-days meeting, including the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, and the Authority Chief Executive of NMDPRA,
Rabiu Abdullahi Umar, agreed regulatory certainty, which goes beyond mere compliance, would provide the necessary incentive and confidence for prospective investors in the petroleum industry.
The annual forum, which has as its theme: “Beyond Compliance: Driving Regulatory Certainty and Investment Confidence in Nigeria’s Petroleum Sector,” brought together legal advisers and general counsels of licensed operators in the downstream and midstream sectors of the industry alongside senior regulatory officials to examine how the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) of 2021 has impacted the growth of the industry since it was enacted five years ago.
In his keynote address, Lokpobiri, told participants that the conversation around regulatory performance had to move past a narrow focus on whether operators were complying with the stipulated regulations guiding the activities of the players.
He argued that the more pressing question now should be whether regulatory institutions themselves were able to establish clear, consistent and predictable regulations that are capable of attracting and sustaining long-term investor confidence.
Compliance, the Minister pointed out, remained the foundation for the growth of investment in the industry, while regulatory certainty was the ceiling the sector must be aspiring to attain at all times.
Situating Nigeria’s reforms within a turbulent global energy environment, Lokpobiri noted that geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions and shifting energy transition policies have made investors to become more selective about where they commit their capital, saying most were attracted to jurisdictions with predictable institutions and respected contracts.
He expressed the view that Nigeria has been able to hold its head high among global competition in the area of predictable institutions and contract regime in recent times as a result of the implementation of the provisions of the PIA.
The Act, which provides the regulatory and legal framework for the industry, the Minister observed, has significantly reshaped the sector’s governance architecture, although he cautioned that the law only provides a framework, while building the right institutional culture remained a work in progress.
Lokpobiri pointed to the full deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry as a major achievement of the present administration in last three years, saying this has paved the way for the privately owned 650,000 barrels per day capacity Dangote Refinery and other domestic refining projects to come on stream and helped end the perennial artificial product scarcity that once plagued the market.
Since the introduction of the deregulation policy in the sector, he said fuel supply and availability have remained uninterrupted, except in recent times as a result of disruptions linked to the Middle East conflict between the United States and Iran.
Concerned about the sharp practice of products shortchanging at the pump, the Minister insisted regulatory authorities must discharge their obligations by ensuring consumers continue to receive the actual quantity of fuel they paid for at the rolling stations.
On pricing, the minister who said the government had expected retail pump prices to fall following the de-escalation of US-Iran tensions, expressed regrets that the petroleum marketers were yet to adjust their price to reflect the reality in the market.
Expressing confidence that market forces would eventually restore balance, he said the sector regulator has a statutory duty under the PIA to prevent deregulation from becoming a cover for profiteering by petroleum products marketers.
To the lawyers and compliance officers, Lokpobiri described the general counsels as the “architects of investor experience” who sit at the intersection of regulation and commercial reality in the sector.
Urging them to move beyond a narrowly defensive posture, by framing the modern general counsel as a strategic partner in regulatory design rather than a gatekeeper, adding that they must not allow legitimate caution to “harden into an instinct toward obstruction.”
He said the government and regulators would ultimately be judged not by the volume of regulations they produced, but by the volume of investments, job opportunities created as well as the value addition to the sector.
In his opening remarks, the Authority Chief Executive of NMDPRA, Rabiu Abdullahi Umar, who is attending the forum for the first time in that capacity, said the gathering reflected a recognition that effective regulation depended more on people than just paper work.
Laws, he noted, are only as effective as the lawyers, compliance officers and regulators who are able to interpret and implement them effectively to instill confidence in prospective investors and existing players.
He said last year’s edition of the forum had succeeded in establishing compliance as a shared value between the NMDPRA and operators’ legal leadership, adding that this year’s theme marked a maturing of that conversation toward certainty, predictability and transparency.
Umar said five years into the PIA’s implementation, attention has shifted from what the law says to how it is functioning in practice.
He said the forum would provide opportunity for participants to review and discuss issues covering investment, energy security, midstream development and host community implementation, among other topics.
Describing the forum as a “listening platform” rather than a one-way briefing, Umar invited participants to challenge assumptions and flag areas of regulatory ambiguity to enable actions to establish regulatory certainty in the sector.
Umar pledged that the NMDPRA, under his leadership, would continue to engage stakeholders transparently and regulate consistently, adding that the objectives of the PIA could only be achieved through partnership rather than in isolation.
The forum continues today with panel sessions involving government officials, investors and industry stakeholders.
