The Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN) was recently honoured as the Downstream Petroleum Industry Advocate of the Year at the Petroleumprice.ng Awards. Executive Secretary and CEO Clement Isong speaks on what the recognition means, the association's priorities, and where Nigeria's downstream sector is headed.
Congratulations on being named Downstream Petroleum Industry Advocate of the Year. What does this award mean to MEMAN and its member companies?
On behalf of my principals, I thank Petroleumprice.ng for recognising the work MEMAN has done in 2025. The honour goes, first and foremost, to our member companies, 11 Plc, Ardova Plc, Conoil Plc, MRS Oil Nigeria Plc, NNPC Retail Limited and TotalEnergies Marketing Nigeria Plc, for their unwavering support of, and commitment to, their association through a year that tested the entire downstream sector in ways few could have anticipated.
Equal credit belongs to the stakeholders in government and regulatory bodies who opened their doors, engaged with us in good faith, and recognised MEMAN as a credible and constructive voice for the downstream industry. I must also acknowledge our Advisory Board and consultants, who frequently, at no cost to the association, bring intellectual depth and professional rigour to our advocacy work. Additionally, we appreciate our local and international industry partners, who ensure that everything we present to policymakers is grounded in evidence rather than opinion. Finally, to the MEMAN Secretariat, a small but exceptionally dedicated team that punches well above its weight, day after day, driving every position paper, policy submission, webinar, and stakeholder engagement MEMAN delivers.
We receive this award as a charge, a reminder of the responsibility MEMAN carries as the representative voice of the major energies marketing sector, and a call to do even more in the years ahead.
What do you consider MEMAN's most significant contribution to the downstream sector over the past year?
If I were to identify the association's single most significant contribution, it would be our safety advocacy, the relentless, year-on-year effort to embed a genuine culture of Health, Safety, Environment, and Quality (HSEQ) across every layer of the petroleum downstream value chain.
Our Cluster Joint Emergency Drills at the Apapa hub brought together member companies, regulatory authorities, and emergency response teams in coordinated simulations of real crisis scenarios, live rehearsals that build interagency coordination and save lives. Our Transport Safety Initiative, developed in close collaboration with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), delivered structured Petroleum Truck Safe To Load training for haulage operators across the sector. Every truck that leaves a loading depot carrying petroleum products is a potential risk to the driver, to other road users, to communities along the route, and to the environment. The Safe To Load programme directly addresses that risk, and it represents MEMAN at its best.
Our Worksite Safety Training programmes have equipped downstream workers with practical knowledge and skills to manage hazards in depot and retail environments. Our Downstream Industry Safety Webinars, convened in partnership with the NMDPRA and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, have created a platform for the cross-institutional dialogue that drives genuine, sustainable improvement in industry standards.
What are MEMAN's key priorities for a more efficient and sustainable petroleum market?
We believe the decisions made in the next three to five years will define the sector's trajectory for a generation. Our priorities are organised around six interconnected themes.
Safety, sustainability, and environmental responsibility must remain embedded in operational culture, not afterthoughts. The Petroleum Industry Act must be implemented fully, consistently, and without selective application. On regulatory consistency, the compliance burden on downstream operators remains significant, and in some areas, overlapping agency jurisdictions create friction that adds cost without adding value. A marketer navigating conflicting requirements from multiple agencies is a marketer diverted from serving the consumer, and that cost is ultimately borne by the end user.
On operational excellence, this means true self-regulation, with operators holding themselves and each other to the highest standards of safety, transparency, and commercial integrity. On pricing and distribution, the market price of petroleum products in Nigeria today is not purely a function of global commodity prices. It is a hybrid outcome of global prices plus the accumulated cost of a distribution system that is underinvested, over-reliant on road haulage, and exposed to significant product losses. Pipeline rehabilitation, automation, and commercial frameworks that make domestic refinery supply genuinely competitive with imports are all essential. On technology, Automatic Tank Gauges, Forecourt Controllers, POS integration, and fleet tracking are not luxuries. They are the infrastructure of a transparent, accountable retail operation. Underpinning all of this is the need to manage the energy transition intelligently, with particular focus on CNG, solar, and the E10 ethanol blending programme as a strategic opportunity to reduce import dependency while creating agricultural value in Nigeria's cassava-producing states.
How does MEMAN balance the interests of marketers, consumers and regulators?
Marketers need viable margins and a predictable operating environment. Consumers need affordable, accessible, quality fuel. Regulators need compliance, transparency, and market stability. These interests overlap significantly but do not always align perfectly.
We keep policy grounded in business reality, invest in sustained relationships with regulators built on mutual respect, and champion standards that serve everyone simultaneously. When we advocate for digital tracking across the value chain, we are reducing leakage for our members, ensuring accurate measurement for consumers, and creating the audit trails that make effective oversight possible. When we push for Safe To Load protocols, we are protecting our members from liability, protecting road users from harm, and supporting the regulatory framework governing haulage operations. The consumer sits at the centre of every policy position MEMAN takes. Every advocacy initiative must ultimately be tested against one question: Does this serve the Nigerian consumer?
With increasing competition from local refining, imports and evolving market dynamics, what role do you see MEMAN playing in fostering a healthy and competitive downstream industry?
MEMAN will act as a unified voice for companies in the industry, presenting shared concerns and priorities to government and regulators, and helping ensure policies are practical and reflect real business conditions. We will support smoother and more consistent product movement by bringing together different players across the supply chain to reduce friction between operators. We will serve as a bridge between the industry and other groups, labour, consumers, and the broader public, while contributing technical knowledge and operational insight when new policies are being developed. We will also encourage companies to follow established safety, quality, and operational standards through shared guidelines, provide data and analysis to support industry decision-making, and support capacity building across the sector.
What is your outlook for Nigeria's downstream petroleum sector?
Our outlook is cautiously optimistic. On the supply side, we are moving toward a future where crude supply planning is data-driven and predictable. Domestic refining, anchored today by the Dangote Refinery and soon to be joined by additional capacity, will mature into a competitive, well-regulated market guided by clear performance benchmarks, transparency obligations, and accountability frameworks. Import channels and coastal infrastructure will continue to serve as a vital buffer, supporting supply continuity and providing the pricing discipline that competition between domestic and imported supply creates.
Central to everything is data, transparent, timely, and reliable. We are particularly encouraged by the NMDPRA's decision to begin publishing its own market data, a development MEMAN fully welcomes. It signals a regulator moving toward greater accountability and openness, and sets an important precedent for how public institutions in the energy space should operate. MEMAN has long understood this, which is why our daily industry bulletin, covering pricing trends, supply volumes, market movements, and downstream sector indicators, has become one of the association's most valued contributions to the industry's information ecosystem.
On the distribution and retail side, pipeline rehabilitation, fleet renewal, and smarter logistics will progressively shift fuel movement from a constant cost burden into a genuine competitive advantage for operators who invest ahead of the curve. The automation of retail stations will make the downstream sector more digital, more accurate, and more trustworthy. Beyond hydrocarbons, the sector that emerges over the next decade will be genuinely diversified, one that does not abandon petroleum overnight, but actively builds the infrastructure and commercial models for CNG mobility, solar integration, biofuels, and the broader energy transition that both global trends and Nigeria's own development aspirations require.