The Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) on Thursday unveiled its plans to host the 2nd edition of its annual conference.
The Authority Chief Executive, Rabiu Umar, who announced this during a press briefing Abuja, said the conference would be on the theme: “Funding West Africa Infrastructure & Distribution to Create a Transparent Market for Regional Price Benchmarks”
The two-day conference scheduled for August 11 and 12, 2026, would be hosted in collaboration with S&P Global Commodity Insights and West Africa Regulator Forum (WARF).
Umar said the primary objective of the Conference was to foster a high-level dialogue around building an integrated, resilient and sustainable refined market in Africa with four strategic goals.
Apart from providing the forum to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and insights on current market dynamics, evolving trends, and emerging opportunities within the African energy sector, Umar said the conference would help identify critical infrastructure gaps and highlight strategic investment opportunities to strengthen the continent’s refining and downstream value chain.
Also, he said the conference would help promote collaborative frameworks and partnerships that enhance market transparency, improve efficiency, and strengthen security of supply across Africa, while exploring pathways for establishing a credible African reference price benchmark that reflects regional market realities and supports transparent pricing mechanisms.
In addition, the NMDPRA CEO said the conference would examine strategies for expanding and modernizing refining capacity across the continent to improve energy security, reduce import dependence, and drive sustainable economic growth.
The proposed conference is to consolidate on the gains of its maiden edition in July 2025, which was on the theme: “West Africa Refined Fuel Market: Pathway to a Regional Reference Market.”
Organisers said the conference was instituted to address a stark reality that Africa produces significant volumes of oil and gas, yet much of the pricing for our commodities is determined outside the continent.
The conference is expected to bring together regulators, investors, financial institutions, and industry leaders to develop practical solutions for investing in infrastructure and logistics that would support a transparent, competitive West African pricing and trading hub.
Besides, the organisers said the vision of the conference is to establish West Africa as a credible regional marketplace where petroleum products can be traded efficiently, transparently, and competitively.
“By strengthening infrastructure, harmonizing regulations, and improving market data, the region can enhance price discovery, facilitate cross-border trade, and attract greater investment,” Umar said.
Within the last one year, Umar said significant progress has been made on key outcomes of the maiden edition of the Conference, including the constitution of the WARF, publication of WA reference prices and setting up of the S&P Global Commodity Insights Regional Office in Abuja.
He said regulators provide the framework that enables fair competition, market transparency, investor confidence, consumer protection, and regional cooperation as well as work to harmonize standards and facilitate cross-border trade.
Efficient markets, Umar said, require efficient infrastructure. investments in pipelines, storage terminals, ports, rail systems, road networks, refineries, and digital trading platforms reduce supply costs, improve energy security, and enhance regional integration.
“Improved infrastructure and market efficiency can reduce supply disruptions, lower logistics costs, encourage competition, and support more reliable access to petroleum products across the region.
“Energy markets extend beyond national borders. Working together enables countries to optimize infrastructure, improve market efficiency, reduce duplication, and strengthen regional energy security,” he said.
Potential opportunities that conference would seek to explore include Gas Value Chain (Process, Transportation, Liquefaction, Compression); Petroleum storage facilities, Pipeline development, Marine terminals, digital commodity exchanges.
Other opportunities include trading platforms; strategic petroleum reserves, LNG infrastructure and Logistics corridors.
Stressing the importance of reliable market data as an essential requirement for transparent pricing, informed investment decisions, risk management, and market confidence, he said high-quality data also supports evidence-based regulation and policy development.
Meanwhile, Umar said the expected outcomes from the conference include new investment partnerships. strengthened collaboration among regulators; infrastructure financing initiatives; enhanced regional cooperation, policy recommendations; roadmaps for logistics and trading infrastructure as well as increased private sector participation.
West Africa, Umar pointed out, represents one of the fastest-growing energy markets, with expanding refining capacity, increasing demand, strategic geographic positioning, and significant opportunities across the petroleum value chain.
Diversified infrastructure, improved logistics, regional storage capacity, and stronger market integration enhance supply resilience and reduce vulnerability to disruptions.
