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Four months after the Federal Government announced wide reaching policy measures to deregulate the downstream sector of the petroleum industry, it has failed to implement any of the measures, BusinessDay investigations have found. 
Industry stakeholders who spoke with BusinessDay while expressing concern over the development said there was nothing on ground to indicate government seriousness on the measures.
Government had in February this year, taken bold steps to open the market to competition by announcing that it was fully deregulating the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.
By implication, the deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry was expected to have thrown the market open for differential in petroleum prices as marketers were expected to be free to offer products in a competitive atmosphere in order to gain the attention of the market.
Some stakeholders who spoke to BusinessDay said they were not surprised that the government is not making any progress, saying that the committee it constituted over the issue was political rather than technical.
They asked whether it would take the government one year to roll out guidelines on how to implement the deregulation policy.
The managing director of one of the oil marketing companies said, “The Federal Government in February, this year, had said deregulation will take effect from April, but we are now in July and nothing is being said about deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry”. 
According to him, “this does not show that the government is serious”, saying it is inconsistent, and always moving forward and backward without anything to show for it”. 
He added that government’s dilly-dallying on the issue is hurting the business of marketers as they can not fully go out to bring in cargoes.
Peter Esele, president, Trade Union Congress (TUC), said the government has not discussed the issue again after it made the pronouncement, saying that the union has not even discussed the issue in its recent meetings with the government. 
“I am sure it (government) may have suspended that for now”, the labour leader said.
According to analysts, Federal Government’s inability to handle organised labour that vowed to use all means possible to resist full deregulation is considered as hindering government from taking any decision now coupled with the Niger Delta crisis. 
Major downstream operators apart from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) are all excluded from the committee while Nigeria Labour Congress was co-opted into the committee after it threatened to go on strike if the government decides to deregulate the downstream sector of the petroleum industry without fixing the refineries.
The analysts say it would be difficult for government to deregulate now that the price of the commodity has gone up again, fluctuating between $60 and $70 per barrel.
They were of the view that since government didn’t take advantage of the price of crude oil when it was below $45 per barrel to deregulate the industry it would be difficult now that the price has gone up and the refineries are not working. 
Analysts had expressed hope that the decision of the government would bring succour to the industry as well as consumers of petroleum products, who have had to bear the brunt of induced scarcity and the cost of over N2 trillion spent on oil subsidy in recent years. 
Potential refinery investors also perceived the step by the government as an opportunity to dust up their business plans, confident that the environment now exists for a level playing field and opportunity to recoup their investment when they set up refineries. 
A chief operating officer of an oil marketing company was optimistic that “the move would enable the price of oil to be subjected to market forces and engender competition among marketers,” adding that “it would also enable marketers plan ahead.”
However, Odein Ajumogobia, minister of state for petroleum, said government has not withdrawn into its shell over deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector, rather it has gone back to review its strategies and work out modalities on how to implement the deregulation policy so that it could be sustainable.
Ajumogobia, who said that even though it is true that everybody can bring in premium motor spirit (PMS), known as petrol, held that there must be criteria for bringing in the product, noting that those criteria must be fair.
“If I say only companies with N10 billion turn-over must bring in the product, then I am restricting the market. So we must create a fair market that is reasonable so that if you and I want to enter the market we can easily do so. If we do so, supply will be guaranteed”, he noted.