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The deregulation policy is the best way to break up the cartel that is said to currently control the oil industry and its elements, the minister of petroleum resources, Odein Ajumogobia, has said. He made this declaration on Monday while being hosted by the management of the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) at its head office in Abuja.The minister described the notion that government was powerless to deal with the so called cartel as a misunderstanding, adding that though current legal system in the industry encourages the loopholes exploited by the cartel, the phenomenon of competition which deregulation will introduce would reduce the strength of the alliance over the market.According to Ajumogobia, “On this cartel issue, my perspective of it is simply that we have an inefficient system that lends itself to greater inefficiency and corruption.” He explained that this cartel is just a small group with the financial resources to play around in this market, adding that though these individuals were given licences to bring the products in there was no strong structure on ground to really control where the product is sold and at what price, thus giving the avenue for manipulation of price, amongst others.

“That’s the reference to the cartel that’s unacceptable; that a few people at the expense of all of us are raking in this money. Now when you say the government is helpless to do something about it that’s a misunderstanding of the notion. This is the legal regime that we (the government) have set up that allows a few people to benefit like this and that’s what we are trying to do with deregulation; this is not acceptable.“So if we stop that and people can sell at market price then you don’t have to have a lot of money to bring in products, you can bring in small, medium and large quantities. Everybody can play and that’s why it’s important to regulate the market to ensure there is a level playing field. So it’s that phenomenon in the market that will ensure we don’t have cartels in my opinion,” the minister said.Moving forward, Ajumogobia assured that the government was currently reviewing the staff quality of the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) as part of the thrust to ensure there are strong enough structures to regulate the deregulated market, adding that though there was no place for equalisation in the new system, staff of PEF will definitely be absorbed to ensure their expertise and technical strength is not lost