DG NPRA, Brima Baluwa Koroma

Abubakar Hashim /Freetown

Sierra Leone’s National Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NPRA, is the state’s entity tasked to regulate the downstream petroleum sector.  It was enacted by the Parliament Act 2014 to establish and manage a strategic petroleum stock program for Sierra Leone.

As the country is not an oil-producing and exporting country, with no functional petroleum refinery, the prime objective of the act is to mitigate the volatile global supply chain challenges in the downstream petroleum sector and institute practical steps that will impact the efficient service delivery to the people and business entities in Sierra Leone.

Upon assuming power in 2018, President Julius Maada Bio was determined to position a prime focus on the sector, by realising that the entity was lacking the requisite leadership needed to fully realize its potentials in revenue generation, regular supply, and price stability.

With many years of unbroken achievements in the corporate world, Brima Baluwa Koroma was appointed, then, as Executive Chairman of the Petroleum Regulatory Authority, PRA, by President Bio.  Baluwa picked up an entity with weak investor confidence, limited players, with only National Petroleum NP and Leone Oil (Leonco), coupled with frequent petroleum supply disruptions, with corresponding declining government revenues.

Baluwa then, instituted reforms, by first, develop polices to open up the market space, restoring fairness in the industry to all players to increase sector efficiency and transparency.  Secondly, he developed the sector’s infrastructure to attract new players, like Aminata, Malador, All Petroleum Products, others, that are now on board, serving as Oil Marketing Companies OMCs.  Thirdly, there are now two petroleum jetties for the smooth and ease of berthing and offloading of big vessels.  Fourthly, he has increased the number of gas stations nationwide to over 500, with strict safety and compliance criteria.  Sixthly, Baluwa has enabled Sierra Leone to be on the global PLATTS platform, a base that monitors daily operations of supplies and prices of petroleum products.  This has ensured stability of supplies and prices, with pump prices going down when world oil prices go down. Recently, there was a further downward review of petroleum products, resulting from decrease in international prices.

More importantly, his reforms have beefed up government revenue from 4.6 billion in 2018 when he assumed office, to 800 billion in 2023, about 12% of the country’s domestic revenue.

Realising the PRA Act 2014 has not been reviewed or amended since its enactment in 2014, Baluwa and his team pushed for a new National Petroleum Regulatory Authority NPRA Act 2025 to be enacted, with enforceable mandates, in line with current global economic realities.

The prime focus of the NPRA Act 2025 is to mitigate the growing and alarming supply chain disruptions and challenges in the downstream petroleum sector, for efficient service delivery.  The industry remains highly volatile, with lots of calamities and uncertainties.  Oil prices have been on the increase since 2020.  Net importing countries like Sierra Leone are more vulnerable to price increases, as petroleum prices and supplies are a major factor in international and domestic policies, with its socio-economic and developmental impacts.

The key objective of NPRA Act 2025 is to support commercial practices in the downstream sector through enforcement mandate to protect the public interest; ensure cautious supply of petroleum products and discourage the tendency of forming cartels, monopolies and unfair competition; eliminate barriers for market entrants; and ultimately, achieve efficiency and cost reduction through mandatory minimum stock balances by license operators.

NPRA has opened up the market space and restored fair competition with multiple importers and fuel storage companies.  There is now construction of a modern tank farm at the dilapidated Kissy Old Refinery into a state-of-the-art tank farm, with over 500,000 metric tons storage capacity.  The terminal has been refurbished with 14 existing storage tanks per international standards.  This national target for storage of 500,000 metric tons has not only improved national petroleum storage capacity, but has also enhanced the fuel replacement period which was 2 to 3 weeks, to the current average of 8 to 10 weeks.

Conex Energy has also completed the construction of 30,000 metric tons of storage tanks, of which 15,000 metric tons are for petrol and diesel.

Aminata & Sons had also commissioned Cline Town terminal, with storage capacity of 8,000 metric tons for diesel and 4,000 metric tons for petrol and diesel tanks at Kissy Conex Energy/Aminata & Sons Depot.

For Jet A1 Aviation fuel, Conex Energy SL had also completed construction and commissioning of 840 metric tons of Jet A1 tanks at Lungi International Airport.

The Government of Sierra Leone has also established 10,000 metric tons strategic reserve.  This is managed by the NPRA as a strategic stock, strictly different from stocks reserved by private operators.  It has received Presidential approval for its establishment, unprecedented in the country’s history.

NPRA has also maintained price stabilization and sector protection.  Despite global oil volatility since 2020, pump prices in Sierra Leone have almost always been below market prices through government subsidies, which presupposes that the country sells the lowest pump price in the sub-region.

NPRA now has District Monitoring Officers DMOs in all the 14 districts, with regional managers as coordinators in the North, East and South, with the North-West in the offing in 2025.  This is to ensure safely, uniformity in pricing and sustainability of petroleum products nationwide.

NPRA is, however, faced with key challenges.  These include, but are not limited, to lack of government participation in the petroleum value chain, as the sector is 100% private sector driven, which is only peculiar to Sierra Leone.  There is also increased costs of regulatory compliance, which has tripled since the market down turns during the global shocks.  More so, there is only a single importer of Aviation fuel, with its high concentration risk.  NPRA is currently in search for an alternative supplier of aviation fuel.