Owari, a market intelligence data platform designed for West African oil markets, was presented to industry participants at its Executive Market Intelligence Forum at Four Points by Sheraton, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, where speakers called for wider access to stock and price data across the region.
The platform brings together prices, stock levels and other data on physical oil trading on a single dashboard. It also generates derived data, including arbitrage levels and curves calculated automatically against the benchmarks used in trading, ICE gasoil and EBOB.
Joe Leigh, co-founder of Owari and CEO of Union Brokerage, said the platform is meant for traders, operators, regulators, ship owners and ship brokers. Leigh, a physical oil broker, said Union Brokerage has been active in West Africa for over 10 years and brokers mainly gasoline and middle distillate products loaded offshore. He said the company found that getting information on the coastal West African countries affected by offshore loading took too long. "The data is available but it's scattered," he said.
Oluwatobi Jimoh, a trading manager at Ardova Plc, said traders need stock levels across regions, including locations such as Bonny, so they can decide where to move cargoes before committing to them. He also called for pipelines linking ports to landlocked markets, saying road transport costs can make some trades uneconomic. Jimoh said the flow of information has to run both ways, with market participants supplying data to platforms such as Owari as well as using it, and that regulators, traders and data providers need to work together.
Matthew Dowty of Marex said data is one of three requirements for effective trading, alongside networks and risk management. He said data alone is not enough, and that risk management covers financing, credit, banking and supplier relationships as well as hedging. Dowty also backed the development of regional benchmarks and live market curves to improve price discovery in African markets.
The Chief Executive Officer of Petroleumprice.ng, Olatide Jeremiah, said regulators should encourage digital market intelligence platforms, as traders depend on daily data and a single piece of wrong information can cost them money. He said such platforms should explain the factors behind prices, including landing and refining costs, and not only publish figures. Jeremiah said prices in Nigeria are quoted in naira while wholesale prices are set in dollars, which makes interpretation of market data necessary.
Leigh gave the closing remarks. He thanked the partners, the panellists and Petroleumprice.ng, along with the attendees. He said the forum marked the start of further discussions and asked participants to keep in touch and form connections that support collaboration in the market.