He said the country’s expanding refining capacity and strategic position in Africa placed Nigeria in a strong position to support the emergence of a more integrated West African petroleum market. According to him, the regional market should enable countries to maximise their respective advantages, facilitate investment and reduce dependence on pricing structures determined outside Africa. “The West African market must be integrated. She said S&P Global was also developing additional data and reporting mechanisms for West Africa to improve transparency and support regional price discovery. Blei disclosed that the pricing benchmark was being developed in naira and other local currencies in the West African sub-region, adding that the company had opened an office in Abuja to facilitate its operations.