The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has commended President Bola Tinubu for the recent reset of Nigeria’s petroleum regulatory architecture through the appointment of new Chief Executive Officers for the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
The organized private sector advocacy group, in a statement by its Director/Chief Executive, Dr. Muda Yusuf, described the appointments a strategic opportunity to reposition the oil and gas regulatory environment in line with the administration’s commitment to energy sovereignty, energy security, self-reliance and accelerated production growth.
However, the group maintained that in order to transform the potential of the appointments to national benefits, the newly appointed leaders of Nigeria’s petroleum regulatory institutions must urgently refocus sector priorities on reducing import dependence, expanding domestic capacity and catalysing investment across the entire oil and gas value chain.
Specifically, the CPPE recommended that in the downstream segment, strong and deliberate support for domestic refining must be an immediate and non-negotiable priority, stressing that the government’s policy should clearly favour locally refined petroleum products through targeted fiscal, regulatory and infrastructural support for both public and private refineries, while actively encouraging new investments in refining capacity.
- Advertisement -
Similarly, the Centre harped on the need for Nigeria to end the current distortion whereby imported petroleum products are made to compete with locally refined products under unequal regulatory and fiscal conditions since this does not constitute fair competition.
According to the Group, genuine competition only exists when all operators function within the same policy, tax and regulatory environment.
To ensure this, it stressed that the NMDPRA must, therefore, place domestic refining at the centre of its policy framework, in line with the President’s Nigeria-First policy direction and industrialisation agenda.
The CPPE clarified: “This is not merely to protect investors, but to safeguard Nigeria’s long-term economic interests. A strong domestic refining base is fundamental to building a resilient, energy-secure and sovereign economy. It is also critical for job creation, foreign exchange conservation, macroeconomic stability and the development of export-oriented refining capacity.
“More importantly, domestic refining is a major pathway to backward integration and resource-based industrialisation. Supporting refineries strengthens Nigeria’s petrochemical, fertiliser and allied industries, thereby creating broader industrial value chains that drive inclusive growth”, it added.
To achieve a major boost in the upstream sector, the OPS group advised that Nigeria must urgently ramp up crude oil and gas production by implementing policies that attract fresh investments across onshore and offshore assets, noting that this is particularly critical as the global energy transition accelerates. Nigeria must maximise the value of its hydrocarbon endowments while the opportunity still exists.
In addition, it charged the new CEO of the NUPRC to prioritise production growth, investment facilitation and improved security, with a clear national objective of raising crude oil output to a minimum of two million barrels per day through close collaboration with industry stakeholders.
This is even as it called for expanded investment in gas production as a central focus of the commission as well as the prioritization of compliance with domestic crude supply obligations to domestic refineries..
The CPPE maintained that these strategic imperatives must define the direction of Nigeria’s new petroleum regulatory regime if the sector is expected to drive sustainable growth, industrialisation, and long-term economic resilience effectively in the nation’s broad economy in the years ahead.
