Between NNPCL and Dangote Refinery: Why regulatory rules matter

Without any contradiction, the regulation and supervision of the Nigeria’s petroleum industry by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) is a crucial aspect of corporate governance, particularly in the effort of ensuring that stakeholders operate in compliance with relevant laws, practices and directives for the overall good of the nation. Moreover, NMDPRA’s responsibility at a time like this becomes more crucial particularly in the aspect of creating room for transparency, accountability and building confidence in the minds of petroleum industry stakeholders and more importantly the sale-purchase deal on premium motor spirit, otherwise known as petrol, between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, (NNPCL), and Dangote Refinery in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State. NMDPRA which was created in September 2021 in line with the Petroleum Industry Act literally seeks to provide legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian petroleum industry and development of host communities has been largely responsible for the technical and commercial regulation of the midstream and downstream operations in Nigeria.

Also with the scrapping of three hitherto extant oil regulatory agencies: Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF), The Authority was birthed to a new dawn with the key objective of establishing a progressive fiscal framework th.