Nigerian govt moves to ban fuel price-fixing, market collusion

The Federal Government, through the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, is set to ban petroleum companies from fixing fuel prices, restricting product supply, sharing markets or coordinating commercial decisions across Nigeria’s midstream and downstream petroleum industry.

This will be done through sweeping competition regulations.

The proposed Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Prevention of Anti-Competitive Practices and Behaviour Regulations, 2026, seek to curb anti-competitive conduct ranging from pump price coordination and artificial scarcity to bid-rigging, customer allocation, exclusive supply arrangements and the exchange of commercially sensitive information among competitors.

Under the proposed regulations, refiners, marketers and other petroleum industry operators would be required to set prices and service terms independently and refrain from practices that create artificial price uniformity or allocate customers.

The proposed regulation specifically targets resale price maintenance and other price-fixing arrangements, covering contractual and commercial practices that substantially lessen competition in the midstream and downstream petroleum sector.